> Wanderings of a Chaos God
>  by BronyWriter
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Mount Aris
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I twitched and tried taking deep breaths as I tried to pull out the spear impaling me through the chest and into the wall behind me. Blood dripped from the wound as my hooves slipped from the spear, unable to get a good grip on it. I flinched back when I heard lighting from Tempest's broken horn charge up next to me. I groaned as the tips of my hind hooves barely touched the ground. Tempest fired her lighting at the stone shield encasing my caged nieces, though her attack did no damage. 

Good. That bought me a few more seconds while she tried to figure out what to do next. If I didn't get free soon, Tempest was going to kill them. I took a few breaths, grabbed the spear in the crook of my forelegs, and began pulling it through my side. I cried out in agony as the spear slid through me, but with one final push, the spear came out, and I dropped to the floor. I heard a cracking noise in front of me and looked up to see that Tempest had turned around and bucked at the stone shield as hard as she could, sending large chunks of stone flying. 

I shakily got to my hooves as my chaos magic closed the wound in my side. I grabbed the spear and tore it out of the wall. I had one shot at this. I charged forward just as Tempest readied herself for another strike. I let out a cry of both determination and terror as I flapped my wings, shooting toward her like a rocket. Tempest stumbled at the sudden loud noise, and turned to me just in time for me to drive the spear through her armor and into her chest. 

All I heard was screaming. Tempest laid on the floor, twitching and grabbing at the spear impaled in her chest. She was screaming. I whimpered and collapsed into a sitting position next to her, my hooves over my ears. Why wouldn't she stop screaming?

My nieces were safe. I just wanted Tempest to stop screaming. 

I squeezed my eyes shut and let out a loud scream of my own. Anything to block out the noise of Tempest dying next to me. When I finally ran out of breath, Tempest's screaming had stopped. My eyes snapped open and I could see that the hallway around me was completely dark, save for a single light overhead. Tempest laid in the light, not moving. The spear was out of her chest, but I didn't see blood all over the floor. I took in a deep, shaky breath and wiped my eyes as I stared at Tempest. 

Maybe if she woke up then she'd see our side of things. She'd want to change instead of fighting us. 

Out of the darkness in front of me I heard hoofsteps approaching. I tore my gaze away from Tempest's body and looked up just in time to see my brother stepping out of the shadows. He looked at me, then stared down at Tempest for a few moments. 

"I..." I sniffled and wiped my eyes again. "I didn't mean to--"

"Hey, it's okay," he said softly, putting his hoof on my shoulder. I hadn't even heard him walk up. "You did what you had to do. This is a good thing."

My eyes widened and I stared up at him. He was giving me a comforting smile, but I didn't feel comforted. Nothing about any of this was right. 

"How?" I whispered. 

"You saved my daughters. You did the right thing."

"M-maybe I could have just disabled her or--"

TD shook his head. "No. That wouldn't have worked. Who's to say that she wouldn't have just gotten back up and tried to kill them again? It's a good thing that you killed her."

I flinched away from him. "How?"

"Like I said: you saved my daughters. You helped protect our subjects." He chuckled and patted me on my head. "You're really coming into your own, do you know that? I don't know how we would have won this war as quickly as we did without you. You're a natural at this."

I shot to my hooves and backed away from him, my legs shaking with every step. "Wh-what? I don't want to be a natural at war! I don't want to fight anymore!"

TD shrugged and stepped toward me, matching each one of my steps with his own. "I thought that way at first, too, but don't worry: it gets easier. Much easier. Haven't you already seen that? You crashed those airships together and into the Storm Creatures below. How many of our enemies did you kill? Hundreds, maybe thousands. Don't worry, though: they were just faceless drones. They weren't important."

"And do you think that the Storm King didn't see us that way?" I growled. "The Storm Creatures--"

"Were just soldiers. It's not unlike killing a Stormtrooper in a video game, really," TD replied. "Once you accept that..." He chuckled and reached his hoof out to me. "You will be our greatest military asset. My subjects see me as the god of war, but you... with your chaos powers, you'll be the real god of war, and our enemies will fear you!"

"I don't want that!" I moaned, my legs completely giving out under me.

"I know it's difficult to accept," TD said, standing above me. Somehow he looked ten feet tall. "But you'll do fine. I know you will. You'll protect Equestria at my side." He smirked and motioned back to Tempest's body. "And soon, that will be easy."

"NO!"

I shot up so fast that I tangled into my sheets and plopped down on the floor. I squeezed my eyes shut as a single beam of sunlight went through a crack in the curtains and into my eye. I rolled myself onto my back with my wings just as the door to my room opened. 

"Holy shamoley, Kristen, are you okay?"

I cracked one eye open and saw Skystar standing in my doorway with a concerned look on her face. I weakly chuckled and began the difficult process of untangling myself. "Yeah. Yeah I'm fine."

"Another nightmare?" she guessed, walking over to help me. 

"Yeah." I slid my left hind leg out of the sheets, which was what I needed to get totally free. I slid out of the tangled mess and stretched out my wings while Skystar tossed my sheets back on the bed in a giant heap. 

"Wanna talk about it?"

I gave her a sideways glare as I continued stretching. "Why?" I grumbled. "You've heard it a hundred times before already."

"Oh." Skystar deflated a bit and poked at the floor with one of her claws. "Right. One of those."

"Yeah. One of those." I walked over to the curtains and peeked through them. Outside my window I could see the hustle and bustle of the hippogriffs going about their daily lives, much as they had when we'd found them in Seaquestria. "What time is it, anyway?"

"Just past six," Skystar replied. "I was just coming to bring you to breakfast with Mom."

"Sounds good," I said with a yawn, scratching at my stomach. I motioned to the door and Skystar led me out into the main halls of Aris Castle. "What's on the agenda for today?"

"Oh, the usual," Skystar said with a wave of her wing. "The main square could use a little more work, but it's mostly just painting at this point. Nothing too difficult."

"Good. Maybe after that I can take a nap." I grimaced as we reached the door to Queen Novo's private dining room. "Ugh. I'm the physical manifestation of chaos. Why do I still need sleep?"

"Stress?" Skystar guessed as she opened the door. "Or, I dunno, didn't you say that it takes time for a normal creature to become the Lord of Chaos? You've only been Discord's replacement for, what, seven years?"

"Something like that. I know I've hit the point where I don't need to eat." I plopped down at the table and pulled a bowl of oatmeal and some toast over to me. With a wave of my hoof, bacon and a doughnut popped into existence on a plate beside me. "But I still like it."

"Right. Of course," Skystar said, sitting down next to me and snatching up one of my pieces of bacon. I rolled my eyes at her and materialized a whole plate of it in front of us. She grinned and grabbed half a dozen pieces, shoving three of them in her mouth. 

The side door to the dining room opened up, and Novo entered with two guards at her side. I nodded to her as I materialized a shaker of brown sugar and began sprinkling it on my oatmeal. "Good morning, Novo."

"Yesh, mornin' mom!" Skystar said through a mouthful of bacon. Novo glared at her, causing Skystar to blush a little. She swallowed and daintily tapped at her beak with a napkin. "Sorry."

"Very well." One of the guards pulled out Novo's chair while the other one loaded up a plate with fruit for her. Novo sat down and took the plate with a little grunt of thanks. She picked up her spoon and took a small, regal bite of grapefruit before turning her attention to me. "How are you this morning, Princess Kristen?"

I bit my tongue and forced a smile on my face. I guess legally speaking I was still a princess, and Novo was the kind of being who would make a big deal out of that, but I hadn't been in Equestria for quite a while, much less done anything that would make that title make sense. Sure my brother was still on the Equestrian throne, but that was it. 

But she wasn't the kind of being to listen to that. So instead I just settled on a noncommittal answer

"I'm doing fine. Ready to start the day, and all that."

Novo grunted and scanned the table. Oh, right, I forgot. I swiped my hoof and a shaker of sugar appeared next to her. She smiled, nodded in thanks, then sprinkled it on her grapefruit. 

"You know, one of these days you'll get good enough that they won't disappear after breakfast," Novo said once she'd finished. "Either that or we'll soon import enough that I don't have to worry about it."

"I don't know about that," I replied. "Chaos magic, and all that. The whole point is that it's unpredictable."

"True, but you're going to have control of it eventually." She shrugged and pushed the sugar away. "In any case, I thank you for the sugar." 

"No problem. Happy to help."

"And I am happy that you are helping," Novo replied with a real, actual smile. "I assume you'll be out in the city finalizing repairs today?"

I nodded and materialized more toast for myself. "Yeah. Skystar said something about painting needing to be done on some of the shops there?"

"Yes, I believe that is what is next, though if I may say so: there is not much left to be done in terms of rebuilding Mount Aris. You've done a wonderful job."

I shrugged and made some more bacon for Skystar, who had been busying herself eating all of it while her mom and I were talking. "Yeah, it's no trouble. After the war it's nice to be able to actually repair stuff instead of ruin it."

"You've been a wonder. You've helped us do in eighteen months what it might take us far longer to do," Novo said. "Just your efforts in helping us gather everything we could from Seaquestria alone helped us greatly."

"For sure."

"And itsh b'n gret havin' ya 'r'nd!" Skystar said. With another glare from her mother, Skystar swallowed her bacon before speaking up again. "I mean, it's been great having you around." Skystar made a noise of contentment and nuzzled my shoulder. "It's nice having a good friend.

Normally that would be a nice, touching statement, but given that a large part of Skystar's attachment to me was her trauma from losing her two childhood friends to the Storm King's army... Skystar was an awesome friend and I wouldn't be as happy here without her, but that was kind of awkward sometimes. It came through some days more than others. Not that I can blame her, really. It's not like I've had a really good friend since coming to Equestria. The person I hang out with the most is TD, and he's, well, my brother. I need some non-family friends. 

So I guess our friendship worked out well for the both of us. And as an added bonus, she didn't care that I was the chaos god, so that was always nice.

I finished off my oatmeal and toast and pushed my dishes aside before standing up and stretching my wings and legs out. "Well, I guess I'd better get to it, then."

"In truth there is little left for you to do," Novo admitted. "Mount Aris has almost been restored to its former glory."

"Well, almost isn't quite good enough," I replied. "It's like I said: I want it to look like the Storm King was never here at all." I shrugged as Skystar stood up next to me, snatching a few extra pieces of bacon off of her plate. "What are you up to today?"

Novo sighed and rubbed the side of her head. "Oh, you know, the usual royal duties that I'm still getting a little used to, such as foreign delegations." Novo grimaced and a slight glare appeared on her face. "I am still dealing with the political ramifications of your brother's annexation of Klugetown."

I groaned and facehooved. "Yeah, yeah that probably wasn't one of his better moves, but he had to be the big dummy and try to save them from something or whatever. Given what I know of them, I'm sure they just love being unwilling Equestrian citizens now."

"Maybe it's 'cause he just wants to help them?" Skystar chimed in. 

"Or maybe it's because he's an idiot. In any case..." I nodded my head to Novo. "Best of luck with that."

I walked out of the dining room with Skystar right behind me, polishing off the last of her bacon. There were times when I regretted introducing that to her, but, eh, it wasn't like it was going to make her gain weight because it was from my chaos magic, and it made her happy, so it wasn't a huge deal. 

We exited the castle and into the bright morning air of Mount Aris. It probably would have been chilly if not for my downy pegasus fur. With it, the air was pleasantly cool. I opened my wings and took to the air in the direction of the center of town, Skystar following right behind me. As I flew, a few hippogriffs waved up at me or bowed to Skystar. I waved back with a smile. Part of what had made the transition to here from Equestria had been the welcoming locals. I'm sure a large part of that was that I'd played a big part in defeating the Storm King, but I'm certain they were friendly anyway.

I landed in the middle of town square where a dozen or so hippogriffs had gathered around a single one who was reading from a scroll that actually looked significantly shorter than in days past. He glanced up from his scroll and nodded to Skystar and I. 

"Lady Kristen. Princess Skystar. Good morning to you," he said in a gruff but not unpleasant voice. 

"Morning, Rockwall," I replied with a smile. "I heard that we have some painting on the agenda today?"

He nodded and motioned to his scroll. "Yes. We have some storefronts that could use a little touch-up. We have enough that it should take us until at least the evening." He motioned to the group of hippogriffs with a wing. "Having said that, Lady Kristen, we can handle that if you would like. You've done more to help than we could have ever asked of you."

I scoffed and waved my hoof. "Don't worry about it. Happy to help." I walked up to one of the hippogriffs and nudged him with my wing. "Plus Daybeam here would probably mess it all up without me to help him."

Daybeam rolled his eyes at me, but I could see the hint of a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. "I admit that you're good... for a pony."

I fake frowned at him and narrowed my eyes. "Says the guy who was a fish until I fixed everything."

The hippogriffs around us began chuckling and muttering to themselves. I think I even heard one or two of them saying something about bets. They were probably betting on me.

"Oh, I hardly see that as a detriment," Daybeam said, buffing his claws on his chest. "With my fragment of the pearl, I have mastery of the sky, ground and sea!"

I gave him a flat look. "Uh-huh. I don't need a piece of a species-changing pearl to be better than you at all three." I motioned to myself. "I can breathe underwater by myself just fine."

Daybeam rolled his eyes. "Yes, yes, we've heard all of that before. However, being able to be underwater does not guarantee your skill there. I would win any contest you proposed!"

"Ooh," the other hippogriffs said in unison while Rockwall grumbled something to himself. 

I ignored them and shrugged. "Well, I guess we'll have to find out at lunch, won't we? I could beat you in a race in the air, on land, or underwater. In fact..." I motioned to a nearby rock. "You see that rock? Want to see how fast I can run to it?" I smirked and flicked my body in the direction of the rock for half a second. "Want to see me do it again?"

Daybeam gave me a flat look. "I see. If that's the way you're going to be about it. I suppose we'll have to put our skills to the test at lunch, won't we?"

I grinned and held out my hoof. "You're on. One race underwater, one on land, and one in the sky. Best two out of three and the loser is buying a round for everyone once the work is over."

That got a cheer going through the gathered workers as a few of them began exchanging bits. Daybeam chuckled and turned to the gathered hippogriffs with a bow. A few walked up to him, but any conversation was cut short when Rockwall stomped his leg on the ground. 

"Alright, alright, that's enough out of you lot," he growled. "We're almost done here, so no need to slack off now at the finish line." He motioned to a stack of paint cans behind him. "Red team will get the south of the city, while blue team will take the north. We've marked every building you need to paint, and we've even put the instructions on the cans, so even you ladies can't mess it up."

"Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool," I said. "Especially one like Daybeam."

"Yes, yes, don't remind me," Rockwall grumbled. "But I'm going to give the benefit of the doubt here and not get mad until there's actually been a mistake. Until then..." He motioned to the paint cans again. "You have your orders, now hop to it!"

Well, that was my cue. I snatched up one of the paint cans and took to the air.


*  *  *  *


I plopped my paint roller back into the tray and took a swig from the canteen around my neck. I tilted my head back to get the last few precious drops of water out before waving my hoof over it and instantly refilling it. Yeah, sometimes being the god of chaos has its perks. 

I stepped back and examined the wall I had been painting. Finding no flaws, I flew over to Skystar who was happily humming some song to herself and rolling the paint roller up and down the wall in more or less the same spot over and over again. I grimaced and waved my hoof, causing some of the excess paint to seep into the spots she had been missing. She flinched back when the paint started moving by itself, but she must have figured out that it was me, because she whirled around, sending flecks of paint flying. 

"Ooh, Kristen, I finished my wall!" she said, dropping the paint roller back into her tray. She threw her arm over my shoulders and puffed out her chest. "Doesn't it look awesome?"

"I think it looks pretty good, yeah," I said, wiping some of the paint she'd gotten on me off of my face. "I guess that means we're done with this building."

"Which means luuuunnnch!" Skystar said, nudging my side as the two of us walked back to town square.

"Yeah, yeah," I said with a slight smile. "Are you looking forward to lunch because you're hungry, or because I'm going to whip Daybeam's flank?"

Skystar giggled as the two of us walked out of our building and took to the air in the direction of the town square, chatting happily between ourselves. As we approached, I saw that a lot of our fellow workers had already arrived and were either breaking into various packed lunches or partaking from the food table that had been set up for us. Skystar and I landed in the back of the short line for the food table. 

"So, you're actually here," said a voice from beside me. "I wasn't sure if you'd have the guts to show up."

I rolled my eyes and turned to see Daybeam standing beside me with a small group of hippogriffs backing him up and a smug smile on his face. "I could say the same to you, really," I replied. "I've been around long enough to know false bravado when I see it. You’re not going to wuss out when we get to the start line?"

Daybeam scoffed and waved his talons. "Projecting, are we? You don't have a chance and I think you know that. Are you going to eat before we begin, or would you like to get started now?"

"You know what?" I stepped out of line and turned to face him completely. "Let's get this going now."

"Excellent," Daybeam said, extending his talons to me as the crowd cheered. I gave him my hoof and he shook it. "Which one should we start with?"

"Well, since you've spent the last several years underwater, I think that it's a good idea to start there," I replied. “I'm not so bad underwater myself."

"Water it is."


*  *  *  *


Our little contest actually managed to draw a fairly sized crowd, not just from the workers, but from several other citizens who had heard about our bet and wanted to see what the pony who had been helping them could really do. I think they'd be rather surprised. 

We'd all gone back to Seaquestria and a few of the seaponies had set up a bit of a racetrack for the two of us. Skystar was in my corner, while Daybeam was being cheered on by a couple of his buddies. 

"Now, are you sure that you don't want the pearl?" Skystar asked, glancing over at Daybeam. "I think you'd find it easier to swim if you actually had flippers, you know?"

"I'm the chaos god, Skystar," I said, waving my hoof at her. "When I found out I could sleep underwater, I switched to that. Until recently, I hadn't slept on a bed in several years."

"I mean, I guess, but sleeping underwater and swimming fast are kinda different, right?"

"I got my wings, don't I? Those are going to help out a lot."

"If you're sure."

"I'm sure." I looked out at the crowd that had gathered to watch us race. "What are the odds?"

"Three-to-one in favor of Daybeam," Skystar replied before pulling me into a tight hug. "But, I just know you're gonna do great!"

"I'd better, because I don't know if I have enough money to buy everybody a round tonight." I shrugged and looked back at Daybeam. "I'll get to that when it comes to it."

Skystar scoffed and waved her flippers. "I mean, come on. I'm the princess. I can help you out."

"Not sure that you should be using some of your royal money to buy a bunch of rowdy construction workers a round," I pointed out.

"Maybe not..." Skystar pulled me into a hug again. "But what are friends for?"

I smirked and hugged her back. "Yeah, yeah. I guess so."

"So are you two gonna stop hugging, or are we going to actually do this?" Daybeam said, pointing at the start line. "We don't have all day, and I have two more events to crush you at!"

"In your dreams," I grumbled as I swam toward the start line. "I'm really looking forward to knocking you down a few pegs."

"Well, we'll know soon enough, won't we?" He motioned out from the start line, where several other seaponies were setting up the track for our race. "All you gotta do is make it through those rings and back to the start line before I do. Sound simple enough?"

"Simple enough." I extended my hoof and shook his flipper. "May the best pony win."

"I assume you said that to include seaponies?"

"Yep. I'm not a total barbarian." I turned around and took my spot at the start line. "On the signal."

He swam beside me and nodded to a seapony who was holding a checkered flag. Where they got one and how it worked underwater, I wasn't sure, but it didn't really matter. I'd ask about it later. My back muscles tensed up as the seapony raised the flag. Beside me I saw Daybeam... crack his flippers like they were knuckles? Um... okay. Again, I wasn't going to question it. I looked back to the flag and narrowed my eyes. Time to put Daybeam in his place. 

The seapony waved the flag down and I took off as fast as my wings could propel me through the water. Daybeam was temporarily surprised by my speed at taking off, but he was just half a second behind me. I made it through the first ring ahead of him, but he was catching up to me rather quickly. I made it through the second ring by a nose. 

"You're slowing, pony," Daybeam said as we approached the third ring. He was slightly ahead of me for the first time in the race. "Getting tired?"

"If you're talking, you're not swimming!" I roared. I flapped my wings harder and shot straight past both him and the fourth ring. In his surprise he slowed down for half a second. It was all I needed. I angled my wings and turned in a perfect ninety-degree angle, zooming in front of him and through the fourth ring. He spun out of control for a few seconds but was hot on my hooves before I could relish my small victory. 

Well, I'd won the first half of the race and wasn't tired at all. I could do the second one no problem. 

He'd started gaining on my by the time I went through the fifth ring. I grimaced. I had him on acceleration and agility, but he had me on speed, and I didn't think my last little trick would work again. He actually reached out and batted my tail as we went through the sixth ring. 

"Hey! Flippers off!"

"I'm right behind you!" Daybeam said in a sing-song voice. "Are you slowing down? Getting tired?"

"Are you kidding?" I looked back up and saw the seventh ring getting closer. "I'm just getting started!" 

I have to admit, I kind of wanted to teleport to the finish line, but that would be cheating, and I didn't want to give Daybeam the pleasure of winning by default. He was going to be a popular being because he was buying everyone a round at the end of all of this. Who was I to deny him that honor? Once more I went through the next ring by a nose. 

I swam as hard as I could as the final ring approached. I didn't think that seaponies could sweat, but if they could, I had to imagine that Daybeam would be. His flippers and tail were waving so hard that I thought he might spin out. It was working, though, as he was slowly inching forward. At this rate he'd be just ahead of me as we crossed the finish line. All around me I heard the gathered seaponies cheer. I even managed to hear Skystar's chipper voice among them. I couldn't let them down! I was the god of chaos! I had to beat this guy!

I screeched to a halt for half a second and coiled my body as tightly as I could. Daybeam paused for a second to look behind him, and smirked when he saw that I had stopped. Probably thought that I'd given up. I glared at him and stuck out my hind hooves out a few inches before using my water walking powers on the water behind me. It was like standing against a wall. I put all of my power into my hind legs and kicked as hard as I could. I shot forward like a rocket. Daybeam squeaked and began swimming for his life, holding one flipper out in a desperate attempt to get any part to cross the finish line before me. If he was any farther away then it would be a futile effort, but he had gained a lot of ground when I stopped. I was coming in like a missile, but he might be just close enough. I squeezed my eyes shut and held out my foreleg.


*  *  *  *


A cheer went through the tavern as I slammed my empty mug on the table. I smiled weakly at the gathered hippogriffs and leaned back in my chair. Daybeam stood in front of me with a half empty mug in his claws. He smiled and raised it to me with a nod. 

"Well fought, pony. You were an honorable opponent."

"Same to you, Daybeam." I smirked as a second mug of ale was placed in front of me. "I hope your coin purse isn't going to be hit too hard by this."

"Oh, I'll survive." He threw his head back and downed the rest of his ale. "You're not going to drop of exhaustion?"

"Not at all." I hooked my foreleg through the handle and took a few big gulps. "Thought you had me in the water race, though."

"As did I. I'll have to hold on to that. It'll make up for my less than great performance in the sky."

"You did good, Daybeam." I fished a few coins out of my coin purse and tossed them to the bartender. "Another round for Daybeam, an honorable opponent."

The hippogriffs cheered again as Skystar wrapped me in another crushing hug. Daybeam got his second round and we clanked mugs together. Right as we started chugging them, the sound of a mug repeatedly being slammed on a table caught our attention. The tavern quieted down as Foreman Rockwall stood on one of the tables. 

"Alright, ladies, I'm not one for speeches, so I'll make this quick." He set his mug down and scanned the gathered crowd of hippogriffs. "I had my reservations that things would go this well when we started. I'm not too proud to admit that I saw it as a rather daunting task. However, with all of you coming together..." He nodded to me. "And with the help of friends, Mount Aris, our home and the home of our ancestors, has been rebuilt!"

The hippogriffs and I all cheered and raised our mugs. Rockwall nodded and raised his mug again, but after a few moments, he waved his claws to quiet the crowd down. "Mount Aris owes you all a debt it can never repay. I'm going to make sure that our people never forget what you have done to erase any damage the Storm King has done. So with that in mind, we're gonna immortalize you in pictures and stuff." 

At a signal, a photographer came in, causing laughter from the rest of us, but we started moving into something resembling a wall of beings that could all fit in one picture. Skystar and I sat at the front of the group and we all raised our mugs. 

"Alright, one... two... three..." There was a bright flash as the photographer snapped his picture. His camera spit it out and he snatched it out of the front, flipping it around to examine it. After a few moments, he nodded in approval, to more cheers.

"Alright, enough of that mushy nonsense," Rockwall growled. "I'm buying you all another round!"

We all cheered some more.


*  *  *  *


I sighed and stared out into the city from the window in my room, staring at the mass of hippogriffs that had come out to celebrate the full reconstruction of Mount Aris. I managed a small smile as I saw the children running around while the adults talked animatedly among themselves. As somebody who had seen what they were like underwater, it really looked as though life had been returned to them. All of the Storm King's evil had been wiped away. 

The feeling of knowing that I'd helped with that sure beat the memories I had of the war in Equestria. 

The door to my room swung open and Skystar bounded in with a pair of sodas in her claws. She landed next to me and handed me a bottle, which I took with a word of thanks. 

"Come on, Kristen! We're celebrating!" She took a deep swig of her soda before nuzzling my side. "Everyone's asking where you are. You did more to help us rebuild than anybody!"

"Yeah, I guess," I muttered, pulling my soda closer. "I do want to be out there having fun and drinking with you guys, but I think I'd just ruin the happiness a little bit."

Skystar frowned and tilted her head. "What? Why? Does somepony need to turn their frown upside down?"

I chuckled and shook my head. "No, it's not that, it's..." I took a deep breath and pointed out the window. "That."

Skystar followed to where I was pointing, and when she saw it, a look of comprehension crossed her face. She grimaced and nuzzled my side again, though this time it was more of a comforting gesture. "Oh. Yeah, I can see why you'd feel bad about that."

I nodded as I stared at my brother. Him, Luna, and Celestia were talking with Novo, while Nymeria and Maia were roughhousing at their hooves. I hadn't seen any of them since what happened with the Storm King. Nymeria and Maia had grown. I even saw that Nymeria had her cutie mark, though I couldn't see what it was from there.

"Do you think he knows you're here?" Skystar asked. 

"Yeah, I'm sure he does. It'd be a hard thing to not hear about."

"He'd be happy to see you, right?"

"I'm positive, but... I don't think now is the right time."

"Yeah, I guess not." Skystar wrapped her wing around my back and scooted closer. "Are you happy to see him?"

I twitched my wing in a little shrug. "I guess. Maybe. I don't know." I took a deep breath and laid my head on the window sill. "He's my brother. He's only a year and a half younger than I am, so we were pretty much raised the same way. We were always really close. Really close. No matter what other friends we made, no matter what we went through, we always had each other. Then he got pulled into Equestria. For five years I wanted nothing more than to see him again. Then I did, and he wanted to be here. Like an idiot I ran into the portal after him."

"If it means anything, I'm glad you did," Skystar said. 

"Yeah, I'm still not sure what to think about it," I replied. "But then I became the chaos god and had to come to terms with the fact that I'm immortal now and am eventually going to become one of the most powerful things on the planet. Even when that happened, I still had him. I also had Celestia, Luna, and two adorable little nieces, but he would still be there. He was still my brother." I opened up the bottle and took a deep swig of soda, wiping my mouth with the back of my hoof.

"I'll bet you still have good memories, right?"

I smirked and nodded. "Oh yeah. Heh, there was this one time when him and I were seven and eight. We got it in our heads that we'd always seen kids in movies and TV go after the cookie jar, but we'd never done it ourselves. So when our parents were outside talking to some neighbors, we actually went into the garage and grabbed the ladder so that we could get to the top of the fridge." I let out an amused scoff and shook my head. "Of course, it was too big for us, so we barely made it into the house before we dropped it. It was heavy enough that it dented the floor. Mom and Dad ran in and we made up the wildest stories. I think he was the one who came up with 'aliens did it'."

Skystar giggled and tightened her grip on me. "Sounds fun."

"Yeah, it was. There are a ton of good memories like that." My smile slowly faded as I stared out at him. "That was the TD I knew, and when I heard him torturing the Storm King just for revenge..." I sighed. "It made me realize that I didn't know him anymore. The TD I knew would never do something like that. I get that he's a ruler and has led armies and sacked cities, but I never thought of him as a sadist. Hearing the bones cracking and the Storm King screaming and then knowing it was my brother doing all of it..." 

"Yeah, I can see why that would be hard." Skystar looked out the window and the two of us just stared at TD for a few minutes, watching him talk to Novo. "Did you ever want to talk to him about that kind of thing?"

I shrugged. "He's a politician now, and I think he's at the point where he'd just say he does what he has to to protect his subjects and whatever. I don't know who I'd be talking to, but it wouldn't be my brother."

"Maybe he'd listen."

"Maybe. Until the next big threat. Then he probably wouldn't pause and think 'will this disturb my sister'? He'd just go for it. I understand that protecting his subjects is part of his job, and I wouldn't want to get in the way of that, but him torturing the Storm King..." I shook my head. "I don't see my brother in that. Not even a little bit."

"Yeah. But I think it'll be okay in the end. You have eternity to figure things out, right?"

"Maybe. I guess we should figure it out sooner rather than later."

"For sure. Until then..." Skystar grabbed my hoof and began pulling me toward the door with a goofy grin on her face. "I can't let my best friend just mope around on a night for celebration! Come on, Kristen. I know where the cookie jar is!"

Despite myself, I couldn't help but smile. Yeah, it probably wasn't a good idea for me to just mope just because my brother was around. I didn't have to deal with that right then. I spared one last glance at him out the window before following Skystar out of my room.


*  *  *  *


I stared up at the ceiling as the seconds kept on ticking by. Skystar laid on the floor next to me, snoring loudly and snuggling up next to the empty cookie jar. If I wasn't the chaos god, I'd probably be sporting a rather nasty stomachache. There were a lot of cookies in that cookie jar. 

I rolled over and slowly pushed myself up to my hooves. It was probably a good idea to let Skystar sleep, but I wasn't going to go back to bed. In truth I'd only gotten a few hours the night before. I'd been thinking about TD. I guess seeing him again brought up more than I thought. I did my best to push him out of my mind as I left my room and went in the direction of the dining room. 

When I arrived, Novo was already sitting at her chair, munching on her grapefruit. She smiled at me when I walked in, and I nodded in return. 

"Morning, Novo," I said, pulling a chair out for myself. "Have fun last night?"

"I did," she said, putting her spoon down. "It was lovely to see my subjects happy like that again. I can't remember the last time we all came together in such wonderful celebration. The restoration of our homeland gave us a lot of cause."

"Glad I could help."

"You helped more than I could have ever asked of you, Princess Kristen. You and your efforts will never be forgotten."

"Thanks." I waved my hoof and a shaker of sugar appeared next to Novo. "So, um... how was my brother?"

Novo paused for half a second, but she recovered quickly and grabbed the sugar. "He is well. They all are. The efforts to restore Equestria went faster than ours. There is another memorial for the soldiers who fought and died during the invasion. From what I understand, Burning Blaze and River Rapids got pretty good statues."

"That's how Equestria is doing. How's my brother doing?"

"Hm." Novo took a few moments sprinkling sugar on her grapefruit before responding. I didn't like the idea that she was avoiding the question. "He is doing well. I can tell that the loss of Blaze and Rapids has hurt him deeply, which is something that I can relate to. He's even more protective of his children now. Same with his subjects. I don't think that he's going to be very nice to the next potential threat."

"Not that he was great to the Storm King this time," I grumbled. 

"Given what he did to my subjects, and especially my daughter, I can't say that I would have done much differently," Novo replied. 

"I have a high enough opinion of you that I think you wouldn't," I said.

"Perhaps. May we never find out. In any case, he's also more protective of Celestia. I think I heard that he spends almost as much time in Canterlot as he does in Baltimare, maybe even a little more. I think the war scared him a lot. He means well, I'm sure, but..." Novo shrugged. "I think he wants to help. He's like you in that regard: he wanted to help people after the Storm King. He wanted to fix things. It's just that he did that by annexing Klugetown, something that none of the rest of us leaders fought him on." Novo grimaced and put her talons on my hoof. "Your brother is powerful, Princess Kristen. Very powerful. Between his human weapons and his... drive, even Celestia can't always control him."

"Yeah, I've heard that," I muttered. "It's why I'm not sure how much of the brother I knew is there anymore. I think he's been through enough stuff where he's felt powerless, so he's overcompensating. He doesn't know how to help Klugetown, so he takes over the whole thing. The Storm King captures his family, so he tortures him forever. Stuff like that. I can't say I don't understand, but it's unnerving."

"It certainly is," Novo said. "But he means well, I think."

"I'm sure he does. Plus I'm sure that Celestia and Luna are helping him a lot. Ultimately, though, I think if you strip away all of his power you find a guy who lost everything once and is terrified of it happening again." I grimaced and poked at the food in front of me. "He's probably hiding it well from everyone else, though. I'd be surprised if his subjects picked up on it."

"Part of ruling as he does is that hiding emotion is necessary. I've known alicorns long enough to tell that they rarely show their subjects how they're feeling. It's nothing against them, it's just their job."

"I know, but it's still hard to see my brother in all of that. No matter what happens, no matter what his job is, he'll always be my brother. Even if..." I flattened my ears and deflated a little. "He's not really my brother."

"Maybe." Novo put her fork on her plate and pushed it aside. "But if I may say so, you haven't talked to him about it, have you? I'm not saying that I'm not glad that you're here, and you've been a huge help, but you didn't come here just to rebuild. You were running from your brother."

I gave Novo a glare from the corner of my eye and crossed my forelegs. "Look, I'm not afraid of my brother, I--"

"Yes. You are. You're afraid of what he's become," Novo cut in. "I understand why, but I'm not going to let you lie to yourself. You see what your brother is and what he's done and it terrifies you, especially since it's part of his job, or, at least, that's how he'd justify it to you."

"Fine then!" I snapped. "Yeah, it's freaky to hear him torturing a guy! It's scary when I see him snap someone's neck who wasn't going to attack us! It scares me that he's powerful enough that he doesn't have to exert any effort to kill someone. He can wave his horn and blow someone's heart up. Then everything that happened with Tempest..." I slumped my shoulders and rubbed my foreleg in unease. "Just the idea that I can do all of that too somehow scares me more than that. I didn't ask for this kind of power. I didn't ask to become the chaos god."

"I understand," Novo said. "And I can especially understand your problems given who your predecessor was. I never had to deal with him directly myself, but I've heard the stories. I know what he did."

"Right, and I'm not even anywhere near that powerful yet, but I'm still strong enough to cause a lot of damage if I did want to go down that path," I muttered. I pulled an empty cup over to me, put it on its side, and began idly rolling it around the table. "I don't want that kind of power."

"Well, have you thought about the fact that Discord probably never thought about this kind of thing?" Novo said, crossing her forelegs. "You're scared of going down this path, but I think the fact that you're scared about it means that you won't. You have almost unlimited power. You can do a lot of good with that." Novo motioned to the nearby window. "I've seen it every day for the last year and a half. You devoted your time to helping us rebuild from the Storm King's attack. That doesn't sound like something that Discord would have ever done."

"Yeah, I guess not." I lifted up my hoof and the cup floated up with it. "But that's over now. Mount Aris has been rebuilt. I had a goal for the last year and a half. Now I've achieved that goal."

"Well, if you wish to stay with us, we would be happy to have you," Novo replied, standing up from her chair. "You will always be welcome here. If you return to Equestria, that would be a valid option as well. Maybe not back to Baltimare, but if you want to spend time helping others, then there will always be others to help. Whatever you decide."

"Yeah, I guess." I took a deep breath and stood up. "I have a lot to think about. For the last eighteen months I've had rebuilding Mount Aris to think about. Now..." I shrugged. "We'll have to see."

"Of course. If you need to talk anymore, I'm always willing to listen."

"Right."

With that, I walked out of the dining room. From there I just... wandered. Wandered throughout the palace. All around me I could see the results of my efforts and the efforts of the hippogriffs who were finally free from their fear of the Storm King. It had been my home for the last eighteen months. 

Well, I'd just walked away from Baltimare, which had been my home for five years. I left Earth, which had been my home for twenty six years. Plus I was the chaos god. being nomadic wouldn't be the worst thing. If I went around the planet helping other creatures... I could do real good. 

I was so lost in my thoughts that I didn't notice Skystar walking next to me until she poked me hard in the shoulder. I flinched back and wheeled around to face her, my wings automatically flaring out. 

"What? What's going on?"

"Um... I've been trying to get your attention for, like, the last five minutes. I kept calling you, but you weren't answering," Skystar said. 

I blinked a few times and shook my head. "Huh. Sorry about that. I guess I was lost in thought. Really lost in thought. But um... yeah, how are you doing? You get breakfast yet?"

Skystar frowned at me and tilted her head. "Kristen, it's past lunchtime."

"Huh." Really really lost in thought. "Well, okay. Sure. What have you been up to?"

"Oh, you know, recovering from my cookie stomachache." Skystar smirked and shook her head. "Probably shouldn't have eaten all of those."

"No, probably not." I shrugged and the two of us started walking again. "Tasted good, though."

"Yep yep yep." The two of us silently walked for a few minutes, which was usually pretty difficult for Skystar. Normally she'd be chatting away like a tree of coked up parrots, so actually spending time just walking was unusual. We made a full loop around the main floor of the palace before she actually spoke up again. "So... I was talking to Mom. She told me about your conversation this morning."

I grimaced. Figured she might have spilled that. Instead of saying that I settled for a more neutral "Oh?"

"Yeah. She thinks you might leave." She stopped fully and turned to me. "Are you gonna?"

I shrugged. "I dunno. I mean... maybe? It's..." I took a deep breath and leaned against the wall. "I've done a lot here, and there's just some part of the back of my mind that's getting... antsy. I can't do anything else here. Nothing big, anyway. Besides, you know what my brother is like these days, or you've heard, at least. He's changing the world a lot. I'm not sure how much of it is for the better, if I'm being honest."

"You're still annoyed by Klugetown?"

I flattened my ears and grumbled a bit. "Yeah, not his best move. But besides that even, he's..." I took another deep, shaky breath. "He's the god of war right now, kind of. At least, that's how people see him these days. He's introduced new weapons, he's taken over several countries... he's destroyed. A lot. I look at Mount Aris and the people here and I think about how much I've helped rebuild. It makes me feel good, you know?"

"Yeah, I guess," Skystar muttered. "So you think you might leave to go help somebody else?"

"I just..." I groaned and thunked my head against the wall. "I hadn't actually thought about it until really recently."

"But you're leaning toward it."

"I guess."

Skystar walked up and threw a wing around my shoulders, gently nuzzling me. "I'm not going to wake up one morning and you'll just be gone, right?" I grimaced when I felt tears drip onto my shoulder. "I just don't want to lose another friend."

"Hey, you won't okay?" I said, pushing her at foreleg’s length and looking her right in the eye. "You won't lose me, okay? I'm kind of immortal, you know? Plus I'm going to get strong enough that I can just appear back here whenever I want, alright?"

"I know, but that's not the same as seeing you every day and hanging out with you. Ever since you came back and helped us rebuild Mount Aris, I've been happy again. Really happy." She pushed my foreleg aside and pulled me in for another hug. "I know that you're the chaos god and that you'll always see things differently, but I don't want to lose you." Her shoulders started shaking a little bit, and I felt more tears dripping onto my shoulders. When I heard the first quiet sob, I wrapped my foreleg around her and held her while she cried. 


*  *  *  *


I stared out my window as the sun slowly crept over the horizon. I amused myself with the thought that I had the power to stare at it directly without any damage. Heh. Just one more perk. My small smirk fell as the cool morning air washed over me. I leaned my head against my hoof and closed my eyes. It had been two weeks since my conversations with Novo and Skystar. Given Skystar's reaction to my leaving, I tried to push it all out of my mind. I could make Mount Aris my permanent home, right? I had a good friend and a community that was infinitely grateful to me. I could have a great life here, at least as long as Skystar and Novo were around. 

Having said that, I couldn't shake the thoughts of the rest of the world. Klugetown, what was left of the Storm Kingdom after my brother got through with it, maybe Schunie... 

Huh, I'd have to see all of those civilizations after my brother changed them forever. 

Could I fix them? Should I? Maybe just looking at what was going on would help. Help somebody.

I took a deep breath and nodded. Maybe it was time. I spread my wings and silently slid out of the window. The mere thought of running off again... just going where the wind took me and experiencing life as it arrived gave me that excited feeling in the pit of my stomach that you get just before you go on a big roller coaster. Mount Aris was a good home, but it was time. 

"So you're leaving, aren't you?" a voice said behind me. 

I turned around and, to my utter lack of surprise, I saw Skystar sitting on the roof right above my window. I grimaced and flew over to her. 

"I just... yeah. I've been thinking about it a lot. I think I can help." I landed on the roof right next to her, unable to make eye contact. "I don't know who I'll help or how or even if I can make a good difference like I did here, but I have to try."

"This is about your brother, isn't it?" Skystar grumbled. "You want to undo some of the stuff he's done."

I grimaced and nodded. "Maybe, yeah. If that's what the best course of action is, that's what I should do. Or maybe I'll start seeing things his way. I can't just stay here and wonder, though."

"Kristen..." Skystar stood up and put a claw on my shoulder. "Why can't you stay here? It'd be fun. We'd be happy. I know you're powerful and you get more powerful every day, but you still can't help everyone."

I stared at Skystar for a few moments. Maybe she didn't get it. Either that or she really didn't want to lose another friend. Either way...

"So, um... there was this beach, right?"

Skystar frowned and tilted her head. "Huh?"

"This beach. It's a story, so there's a beach. And one day the tide came in farther than normal, and it washed thousands upon thousands of starfish onto the shore. They covered the shore, and they went for miles." I turned and looked out at the horizon. "Then there was this boy, and he went up and down the beach throwing the starfish back into the ocean. Just all day, all he'd do was throw starfish back in the ocean. There were so many that he hardly made a dent, though.

"After a while, some people came up to him as he was throwing starfish back into the ocean. They told him that he was being foolish, and that he could never save all of them. Nothing he was doing really mattered in the long run. The boy looked at them, then picked up another starfish and threw it in the water. Before he picked up another one, he turned back to them, motioned to where he'd thrown the starfish, then said 'it mattered to that one.'"

Skystar and I just stood in silence for a few more minutes after that. Every now and again her mouth would open slightly as though she wanted to say something, but she never did. I put my hoof on her shoulder and turned back to the horizon. 

"I think it's time. Goodbye, Skystar. We'll see each other again."

"Yeah. We will," Skystar whispered. "Because I'm coming with you."

I frowned and turned back to Skystar. "Now look--"

"No, don't try to talk me out of it," Skystar said, pressing a talon to my lips. "You have to do this, I get that. But what kind of friend would I be if I let you risk your tail all alone?"

"I'm immortal and just about indestructible," I said flatly. "What risk am I taking?"

"There's more than just physical peril," Skystar replied. She scoffed and shook her head. "Look, Kristen, if I can't come with you, I'll just 'happen' to bump into you wherever you end up going. If I can't hack it, I'll come back here, but if you're going to go around the world helping creatures..." Skystar straightened up and glared at me. "Well then I am too!"

"Um..." 

I looked around as if somebody would pop out and try to talk Skystar out of it, but since that wasn't going to happen...

"What about your mom?" Yeah, she'd talk her out of it.

"We'll send her back a note," she said, waving her talons. "I'm sure she won't have that big of a problem with it!"

"Or you're going to get majorly grounded for it," I pointed out. 

"I'm twenty-six," Skystar retorted. "She can't really ground me now, can she? In any case..." Skystar spread her wings and moved closer to the edge of the roof. "I guess it's time to get going."

With that, she hopped off of the roof and began flying away, leaving me staring at her for a few moments. This wasn't actually going to happen, was it? I mean... 

Dang. It was. It would probably really ruin our friendship if I used my chaos magic to keep her on Mount Aris. 

Maybe this wouldn't be so bad?

Or it would be a disaster. 

In any case, I couldn't just let her go off on her own. With one last deep breath, I spread my wings and flew off after her.
> Klugetown
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I caught up with Skystar after a few minutes.

I had to put on a little speed, but it wasn't too strenuous. She wasn't the most powerful flier, and she was kind of just flitting around in the vague direction we had taken off in. Plus, I didn't think that she wanted to get too far ahead of me. She stopped just as I reached her, only starting up again when I continued flying. 

"So, uh... are you sure about this, Skystar?" I asked. "I mean, you just leaving Mount Aris is--"

"Oh, psshh, that's all fine," she said with a wave. "Like I said: we'll send a note to Mom telling her where I've gone and she'll be okay with it. I need to get out of the nest sometime, right?"

"Right, but I'm not sure this is the way to do it."

"It's totally fine, I promise," Skystar said. "I've been cooped up underwater for a long time, Kristen! I wanna see the world a little bit!"

Even though I was irritated by how spontaneous this all was, I couldn't exactly ignore that point. I love being underwater a lot, but if I had to just be underwater in one place for years, I would definitely go a little stir-crazy. Besides, Skystar wouldn't be the worst companion while I went... wherever I was gonna go. I found it likely that she wouldn't want to do all of the dangerous stuff anyway. 

"Okay, fine," I said. "You can tag along. If you want to go back home at any point, just say the word."

Skystar gasped and wrapped me in a crushing hug, which probably wasn't a good thing since we were high up in the air. "Oh thankyouthankyouthankyou!" she cried, crushing me harder. "I'm so excited! This is gonna be great!"

"For sure," I replied, waving my hoof to get out of her grasp a few feet before we hit the ground. "I warn you, though: this might be difficult. I'm the god of chaos so I could walk around the world without stopping for anything."

"Yeah, yeah, but I'm in pretty good shape, too, you know," Skystar replied as we got going again. "Plus if we need to stop for food or whatever, I'm sure you've got us covered. You've gotten better at real food lately."

"I did have a lot of time to practice," I admitted, looking out to the horizon. "So..."

My thoughts trailed off as I saw what was in the distance: Klugetown. I grimaced and sighed. I really had a moron for a brother. I really, really did. Skystar followed my gaze and tilted her head as the two of us flew closer to the town.

"So it's gotta be better now, right?" Skystar said. "Your brother--"

"Is going to go too far someday, if he hasn't already," I growled. "I'm surprised that Celestia and Luna didn't put a stop to it, even if he's been getting more aggressive with how he rules. In any case, it's as good a place as any to stop and rest for a bit. I admit that I am kind of curious to see what it's like now."

"Can't be any worse than the last time you were there," Skystar pointed out. "No crime bosses, right?"

"Probably not, but it can still be worse in other ways," I pointed out, not breaking my gaze from the town. "Klugetowners strike me as beings that value their independence. Verko might be gone, but if he hasn't been replaced with somebody just as bad or worse, it's because my brother is ruling it with an iron hoof and keeping a very close eye on things there. Either way, I don't think that the Klugetowners are happy about the way things turned out."

"Probably won't like ponies any more than they already did," Skystar agreed. 

I scoffed and nodded, a knot forming in my stomach as we got closer and closer to the newest Equestrian town. "Yeah. They just about tried to gut me and my brother when we were there last. I remember one of them saying something about how all ponies are thieves, and stuff."

Skystar flinched back. "Oof. That doesn't sound too good. They're definitely pretty mad at your brother, then, yeah?"

"No doubt." I grimaced as we went in for a landing. Even from high up I could see that the city looked a lot different. When we landed, the stark contrast was even clearer. Back when TD and I had been to Klugetown the last time, everything was run-down and ratty looking. "Mos Eisley" were the words I used, if I remember correctly. Now, though, everything was different. The buildings had all been repaired and painted, and the roads were paved, including concrete sidewalks. None of the stalls in the market were worn-down, with the locals selling chipped and dirty pots. Now each one wouldn't look out of place in the Ponyville market. They were made of polished wood, with hand-painted signs showing what each stall was named. 

The craziest part, though? The craziest part was the locals. Before they all seemed like there was anger bubbling underneath their auras. They looked like they were going to get in a fight at any moment. I would know: they threatened to kill TD and I when we where here last. Now they all just looked kind of... broken. None of them had any sparks of life in their eyes. They looked like zombies just kind of going through the motions of day-to-day actions. 

My brother is an idiot. 

"They don't look very happy," Skystar muttered as we went down what I presumed was the main street. 

"Probably because they aren't," I grumbled. "When I was here last, they didn't seem happy then either, but they didn't look like all of the fight had been taken out of them. I wonder how many were killed trying to resist TD's annexation."

"Maybe none of them," Skystar replied. "Maybe they just kind of realized that fighting your brother wasn't worth it. I mean, it's not like they had an army or anything, right?"

I groaned and facehooved. "Yeah, that might be worse. Regardless of what happened, there's no way they're better off now than they were before my moron of a brother took over."

As we passed by the locals, several of them glared at me. One or two of them even curled their hands into fists. They might have attacked, but I'm sure that there would have been extreme repercussions for that. The guard probably had this place in line. I'm sure that TD would say that it was for the greater good. I mean, all of these people were technically Equestrians now. 

"So who do you think is in charge of this place?" Skystar asked, looking around for a building that looked like it could be some kind of seat of government. "I mean, your brother isn't just letting all of them be in charge of themselves, right?"

"Probably..." I tapped my jaw and looked in the direction I remember Verko's compound being. If there was any place that had the ability to house any leadership, it was Verko's compound. I beckoned Skystar to follow me and started walking in that direction. "I think I have an idea of where some leadership could be. I'd be pretty surprised if it was a local in charge of everything. TD probably has some kind of governor ruling over things until he feels like the locals can take charge and won't just break free." I grimace and flatten my ears. "Who knows when that will be? A hundred years? Two hundred? Long enough that the locals won't remember a time before Equestria."

Skystar frowned. "Well that doesn't sound very good. Isn't there an example on Earth of why this is a bad idea?"

"Absolutely," I said through gritted teeth. "In any case..." I looked down at myself and determined a small problem. "So, I just thought of something. I kind of stick out a bit. A lot of the ponies here would probably recognize me as Princess Kristen, sister of their beloved Prince Antares."

"Oh, yeah, that might be a problem," Skystar said.

I shrugged and shook my head. "Eh, not really." I motioned to a nearby alley and looked around to see if anyone was watching, then cast a spell on myself. My green mane shortened a few inches and turned light gray, while my coat turned into a slightly darker shade of gray. My muzzle elongated ever so slightly, my wings vanished, and my eyes turned gray-ish blue. To complete the picture, a cutie mark of a rolled-up scroll tied with black ribbon appeared on my flanks.

"Whoa," Skystar said with wide eyes. "I didn't know that you could do that!"

"Well, I can," I replied, my voice an octave lower and with a touch less personality. "I'd be shocked if anyone saw Silver Scribe and thought she was the chaos god Princess Kristen."

"I know that I don't recognize you at all!" Skystar poked my side to see if she could still feel my wings. She couldn't but thankfully they were still there. Not gonna lie, I was glad that I'd ended up as a pegasus when I'd turned into a pony. Flying was awesome. 

"Well, no sense wasting the day," I said, walking out of the alley. "Might as well go see what's going on around here."

As the two of us get closer to where I remember Verko's compound being, I can tell that my guess of the government moving here is correct. I saw several ponies in armor and carrying spears surrounding it. I guess that TD and whoever ran this place didn't want anyone getting in and overthrowing what TD had set up here. When we got nearer to the gate, the two earth ponies guarding it crossed their spears in front of the door. 

"Halt!" said the one on the right. "What business do you have here?"

"We're here for our meeting," I replied. "Princess Skystar and I have been invited to meet with the governor here to strengthen the bonds between our nations and possibly open up more trade."

The guards exchanged an uneasy look. "I have not been notified of that," the guard on the left said. "What time did you set up your appointment?"

"Yeah, I didn't see anything on the schedule here," the second guard said. I saw him reach into a side pocket and produce a clipboard. Bingo. With a slight smirk, I waved my hoof. That should fix up any issues. The guard checked the clipboard, and his eyes widened. "Oh, my mistake! I see you on here for three o'clock."

"Sounds right to me," I replied with a little tilt of my head. 

The guards stepped aside and opened the doors for us. "Then please, ma'am, Your Highness, we shall have somepony escort you to Governor Overwatch at once."

I forced a smile on my face and tilted my head in a nod. "Thank you, sir. I appreciate it." 

The second guard opened the door, and the two of us followed him into the compound. When I crossed the threshold of the gate, I shuddered a little bit. The last time I had been in here, I found TD in a cell where he had been tortured for a few days while almost dying. I'd rather not be reminded of that, thank you very much. 

As we followed the guard, Skystar leaned in to me. "Kris-- er, Silver Scribe, we don't have any appointments like that. What are you doing?"

"Just getting a feel of what's going on here and see if there's anything I can do to help," I whispered back. "I doubt that I can totally free Klugetown from Equestria, but if there's something that I can do to make it so that the locals here are at least happier, then I'll do what I can. Maybe the guards are abusing people, and I can put a stop to that, or at least bring it to TD's attention. As much of a mistake as annexing Klugetown was, I doubt that he'd let people be abused around here. 

The guard handed us off to a servant, who led us to a main room guarded by two more guards. Thank goodness it was just a few minutes until three, or else we might have had to wait for a while, and the longer we waited, the more likely it was that somebody would see through our story. In any case, the guards at the door opened it up, and the servant who was leading us brought us into the main room. 

Previous experience almost made me expect to see some big golden throne where some fat noble sat, looking down his nose at me and Skystar. Instead, I saw an earth pony who couldn't have been a few years older than me sitting at a desk doing paperwork. The room was a lot smaller than TD's throne room, so that probably had something to do with there not being a throne. Plus, you know, the room was barely bigger than TD's office back in Baltimare. 

The earth pony, who I assumed was Governor Overwatch, looked up from some paperwork when the door opened, and stood up with a smile. 

"Hello, hello, Miss Silver Scribe, Princess Skystar." He walked up to us, but stopped a few feet in front of us for a bow. "It's an honor to have you here."

"Yeah, it's great to be here," I replied. "Princess Skystar and I are just... you know, checking up on things around here for Queen Novo. We're neighbors, after all, and she hasn't had a lot of contact with you guys since my brother took over."

"Oh, pshhhh, I wouldn't call it taking over," Overwatch said with a wave of his hoof. "More like coming in to help them by..." Overwatch grimaced and scuffed his hoof on the ground. "Okay, maybe it was taking over a little bit, but we had a good reason."

Skystar tilted her head. "What's that? I don't see any happy locals here."

"Yeah, they don't seem to be too thrilled about being Equestrians now," I said, narrowing my eyes. "Queen Novo has some concerns about it."

Overwatch widened his eyes and he held his hoof up. "No, no, you don't have to worry about anything like that!" he insisted. "Prince Antares in his wisdom has no intention of moving south to take over Mount Aris! We're doing our best to help the people of Klugetown!" Overwatch walked over to his desk and motioned over to a large stack of paperwork on it. "On top of making Klugetown a wonderful place to live, Prince Antares is attempting to turn the badlands into a breadbasket! He's recruited the top weather pegasi, the most skilled earth pony farmers, and the unicorns most skilled in agricultural magic. In the past year, we have made significant gains in turning the badlands into something wonderful for the world!"

"So Prince Antares annexed the badlands on top of Klugetown?" Skystar asked, tilting her head. 

"W-well, it's not like anypony was doing anything with it," Overwatch said, poking at the papers on his desk. "With Prince Antares's reforms in the area, it's doing a lot of beings a ton of good! Within five years, crops from the old badlands will help feed beings from Baltimare to Vanhoover and beyond! We can even send food to Zebrica, Saddle Arabia, Minotauria, and even the old Storm King's empire!"

Skystar and I exchanged a look at the mention of the Storm King's old empire. Skystar's uneasiness told me that the scars from his invasion hadn't completely healed. Given everything that he'd done to her people, I couldn't exactly blame her. 

"Yeah, about that..." I began, turning my attention to Overwatch. "What exactly happened with that? My brother hasn't told Queen Novo, and she's beginning to worry that he... took some measure of revenge against the people there in response to their invasion and the deaths of his officers."

Overwatch emphatically shook his head. "Not at all! The situation there is very similar to what happened in the south here.  The sovereign nations have been liberated, and the Storm King's original country has been occupied to be rebuilt."

My eyes narrowed. "Rebuilt? What, was there a battle, or something like that? I thought that The Storm King's army was destroyed in the invasion."

"Most of it. The vast majority, really," Overwatch said with a shrug. "There was a bit of a battle, though, and Prince Antares... wanted it over with quickly."

My jaw tightened, and I looked down to the floor at that. The more I heard and saw about the stuff TD did in combat, the more sure I was that there wasn't a lot of the guy I knew of as my brother left. War changes people, I know that, but the TD I knew would never do something like that. Sure, he was rebuilding afterwards, but I can't imagine that he was as merciful as he could have been."

"Prince Antares wished to limit casualties as much as he could," Overwatch continued, either unaware of my mood or unwilling to comment on it. "In the past year, much has been done to rebuild their nation."

"Well, do you know if they're actually happy?" Skystar asked, putting a wing on my back. "I mean, Mount Aris rebuilt a lot in the past year, but we're really happy because we all got together and restored our home. We don't have anyone from Equestria leading our country. We're independent."

"Well, I mean... you were allies to Equestria," Overwatch said. "I see no reason why we would need to have anypony in your nation."

'Whatever," I said through gritted teeth. "I guess they're happy there." I motioned to a nearby window. "And what about the locals here? Are they happy being Equestrians?"

Overwatch's uncomfortable demeanor faded, and he puffed out his chest with a smile. "Oh, we're doing everything that we can to make Klugetown the best it can be. Over the past year, crime is down ninety percent, and the town is in a state of repair that I don't know it has ever been in. I've coordinated with a local council to improve the life of Klugetowners everywhere. I know that you said that you're here to see if Mount Aris can resume trade with Klugetown, and I am happy to say that we will be ready to shortly."

"Well, I guess that's good," Skystar said. "Mom will be happy to hear that."

"I'm glad. If the improvement of Klugetown can help everycreature, then any unpleasantness is worth it, right?" Overwatch replied. 

I don't know about that. I get that sometimes not everybody is going to be happy with changes, but in this case, changes meant that a foreign power took over. I guess I can see the logic of annexing the badlands since Equestria can actually improve it in a way that help everybody, and nobody actually owned it, but Klugetown was its own thing. These people weren't former Equestrians that the Storm King took over, they were their own town. On top of that, I can't see the Storm Kingdom's old nation faring much better. In fact, it was probably doing worse. Even if TD wasn't telling them to be cruel, a lot of the soldiers he was using to occupy the land would have bad memories of the war. They might want a little revenge, and that could lead to all kinds of unpleasant stuff. 

"So, is there anything I can do for you right now to resume trade?" Overwatch asked, breaking me out of my thoughts. "I can't say that we could start tomorrow, but we could have things started in the next month or so."

Skystar and I exchanged a look, but after a moment, I cleared my throat. "Actually, if you could send a message to Queen Novo for us, we would appreciate that," I said. "We have a few more stops, and Queen Novo would like this information as soon as she can."

"Of course, of course!" Overwatch said. "Do you need some paper, or...?"

"That would be great," I said, walking up to Overwatch's desk. "I should just need a pen and some paper."

"Of course." Overwatch grabbed a piece of loose paper and a quill, and pushed them over to me. "Let me know when you're ready and I can have a messenger deliver it at once."

I smiled at him and took the materials before beckoning Skystar to follow me and going over to a small desk in the corner of the room. 

"So what are you thinking?" Skystar asked, sitting down at the chair on the desk. "You have that look like you have a plan of some kind."

"Nothing concrete yet," I  admitted, casting a weak privacy spell around us. "But first we're going to send a message to your mom."

Skystar frowned and tilted her head. "My mom? What for?"

I gave her a flat look and put the quill and paper on the desk. 

Hello, Queen Novo, this is Kristen. I'm writing to say that yes, your daughter is with me, and she's joining me on some travels. Don't worry: I'll keep her safe. I'm the chaos god. I can take good care of us.

Skystar read over my shoulder, and once I was done, she grabbed the quill for her own note.

Hey, Mom, this is Skystar. I wanted to join Kristen to see the world and stuff. I gotta get out of the nest sometime, right? Don't ground me when I get home, whenever that is. Love, Skystar.

I smirk and roll the paper up. We go back to Overwatch, and I hand him the paper. "Here, if you could deliver that to Queen Novo as soon as possible, that would be awesome. Obviously it's private, so discretion is appreciated."

Not to mention that I cast a spell on it that meant that anybody who tried to read it that wasn't Novo would get a nasty surprise of a bucketful of ink right in the face. Sometimes being the chaos god is rather nice. 

"Of course, Miss Scroll," Overwatch said, tilting his head in a bow. "I shall have my fastest courier deliver it at once."

"Kind of you."

"Is there anything else I can do for you?" Overwatch asked as he took the note from me. 

"Yes. I'd like to meet this council of locals that you were talking about."

Maybe they could shed some light on how things were around here.
> Council
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Governor Overwatch put us up in a nearby hotel while the council gathered. From what he was telling us, they only gathered three times a week, and we'd hit them on an off day. I was glad to hear that he wasn't forcing them to convene just for the sake of the two of us. I'm sure they were mad enough about this already without them feeling like he was ordering them around.

Though, he probably was.

In any case, we were given the best suite in the best hotel in Klugetown. As the concierge opened the door for the two of us, that turned out to be... not exactly royalty-grade. Don't get me wrong: it wasn't like it was a cockroach infested mess, but it was closer to an average room in a mid-tier hotel on Earth or Equestria. It had two queen beds, a pair of wooden nightstands, a mirror, an AC unit, and a minifridge. 

Perfect, really. 

"Is this to your liking, Your Majesty?" the concierge asked, bowing more to Skystar than me.

"Oh, yeah, this is great!" Skystar said, happily bouncing over to the bed closest to the door and flopping down on it. "Really comfy!"

"I'm glad you approve," the concierge replied. "If the two of you need anything at all, please don't hesitate to say so. Governor Overwatch is footing the bill, so please inform us if there is anything that we can get you."

"Just some call mares, a large bottle of one ninety proof everclear, and a few grams of Klugetown's finest cocaine would be fine," I said, walking into the room. I turned back to the concierge and saw that he had gone white and his jaw was flopping up and down. I smirked at him and put my hoof on his shoulder. "Just kidding. We're good for right now, thanks."

"Er..." The concierge blinked a few times before clearing his throat and forcing a weak smile on his face. "Yes. Quite amusing. Enjoy your stay."

Once he'd shut the door behind him, I made my way over to my bed while Skystar scoffed behind me. "That wasn't very nice."

I chuckled and hopped onto the bed. "Chaos god, remember? Couldn't resist."

Skystar rolled her eyes as I waved my hoof and a tray of snacks appeared on her bed. She squeed in happiness and snatched some cheese and crackers off of the tray. Once she'd eaten a few, she pushed the tray aside to talk to me. 

"So what exactly do you want for tomorrow?" she asked. "I mean, I'm sure that they're not going to be happy about talking to you."

"Probably not," I admit. "I guess I just... want to get a real indication of what's going on from the perspective of someone who can look at what my brother's doing outside of the usual reverent lens Equestrians tend to look at alicorns through. That's not even taking into account the fact that my brother basically won two defensive wars in five years for Equestria. They love him enough that they're not going to question whatever he's doing."

"Yeah, I guess that makes sense," Skystar said, picking up a piece of bacon from the tray. "It's not like Mom or any of the other leaders were going to stop him. Mom especially was more worried about making sure we got Mount Aris back to normal than whatever your brother was doing."

"And it's not like the griffins or minotaurs are going to go to war with Equestria over Klugetown," I finished. "Still wonder how he talked Celestia and Luna into that."

Skystar shrugged. "Maybe it was his whole thing with turning the Badlands into a breadbasket? Or improving the lives of the citizens?"

I rolled my eyes and floated a cookie over to myself. "Playing the dumb hero. I swear that he has no Canadian left in him." When Skystar shot me a quizzical look, I waved my hoof at her. "That's what we are. We're not Equestrians, we're Canadian-American. I always identified as more Canadian, and he always identified more as an American, but he's still Canadian. Neither of us have a true drop of pony blood in our bodies."

"Oh." Skystar glanced over at the minifridge, but I waved my hoof and a pitcher of lemonade and a pair of glasses appeared on her bedside table. She smiled in thanks and poured herself a glass. "So do you miss it? Your homeworld, I mean."

I grimaced and spun the half-eaten cookie in the air as I considered the answer. "Yeah. Every day. I miss my parents most of all. I wish that we'd either stayed or they'd come to Equestria with us. I can't imagine what it must have been like for them to lose both of their children over the span of about fifteen seconds. At least they hopefully know that we're alive, right?"

"Have you ever thought about trying a portal like Discord did for TD?" 

I sighed and put the cookie on my bedside table, suddenly not all that hungry. "Yeah. Once or twice. Nothing even popped up. I guess there's a difference between getting good at making food out of thin air and creating an inter-dimensional portal. Not something I'd pick up after only seven years of being the chaos god. It'll probably be several centuries, if not millennia, before I can pull that off, and by that point..."

"Oh. Yeah." Skystar deflated for a few seconds before perking up again. "But you still have family here, right?"

I snorted. "Yeah, you." A small smile crossed my face for a moment as Skystar blushed. It faded quickly, though. "I technically have two nieces, a brother, a sister-in-law and... whatever Luna is. I don't know the title of the mare who my brother is the sperm donor for. In any case, I haven't talked to any of them in almost two years, and I probably won't talk to them for a long time still. Years, decades, who knows?"

"But you'll go back and talk to them eventually, right?" Skystar asked. "I mean, you don't want to cut them out of your life."

"Of course not," I replied with a wave of my hoof. "No, I still love my brother and my nieces and all that, but I guess I have to figure things out, you know? Even before the Storm War, I was kind of in a weird place, what with suddenly becoming the lord of all chaos on top of losing my homeworld. At least TD said that he had a few years before he ascended to get used to Equestria. I had about two days before I got the powers of one of Equestria's greatest monsters. Then I had to be a part of a surprise war, kill dozens of creatures if not hundreds, then hear my brother torture somebody."

"Yeah, that would be pretty hard," Skystar muttered. "But I think everything will turn out okay in the end. You and your brother have an eternity to figure things out, right?"

I shrugged with my wings. "Yeah, I guess so."

I did hope that it wouldn't be a hundred years before things went kind of back to normal with TD and I. At the moment, I wasn't holding my breath on that.


*  *  *  *


We'd gone to sleep not too long after that, and woke up at about seven-thirty to get ready to meet with the local council. As the chaos god I didn't need to do stuff like shower and brush my teeth, but I still took a hot shower. Being under water helped relax me a bit. I swear if it was just me here, I would spend my life under the water. Just me, Bob, and whichever sea ponies wanted to stay that way. Either that or explore the world's oceans to see what there was to see. 

In any case, by about eight we were all set to go. Governor Overwatch met us outside of the hotel personally. I guess because Skystar was royalty and pretending to be an emissary from Mount Aris. When we met him in the lobby, he smiled at us and tilted his head. 

"Good morning, ladies. I trust you slept well and that the accommodations were to your liking?"

"They were very good, thank you," I replied with a smile.

"Yeah, the beds were very comfy!" Skystar chimed in.

"I'm happy to hear it." He beckoned us to follow him and led us out of the hotel. "Now, the council meeting starts at nine, and we've scheduled your meeting to be the first thing on their agenda." He paused for a moment as we continued to walk. "If I may... can I ask what you and the council will be discussing?"

Skystar opened her mouth, no doubt to say some excuse. Instead I just shook my head. 

"Nope."

Overwatch flinched back slightly. "Oh... yes, my apologies. It wouldn't do for me to intrude upon the private meetings of world leaders, of course."

Yeah, but they're not really world leaders, are they? They'll probably be phased out in the next ten or twenty years as the new generation forgets what it was like to not be ruled by the alicorns. Once the current council members are too old to work, they probably won't get replacements. Give it fifty years and pre-Equestria will be a memory. Another fifty and it'll be a legend. Fifty more and it'll be totally gone. They'll probably start taking Equestrian names and trying to get cutie marks after a while. 

Still don't have mine. Kind of glad about that, really. I mean, I could get any cutie mark that I wanted in all honesty, but I liked not having one. Made me unique, and it also made hiding my identity easier. When ponies tried to change theirs beyond completely removing it like Starlight did, they can only change it to something close to what they have. So if Celestia wanted to disguise her cutie mark, it would still have to be a sun of some kind. Me, thought? I could choose whatever I wanted, which helped a lot with my Silver Scribe disguise. 

I tried to not look at the locals as we walked down the main street of Klugetown. I couldn't help but notice the pony guards walking around, but I tried to push that out of my mind as we walked back in the direction of Verko's old compound. Overwatch silently led us into the compound and to a side room flanked by two pony guards. He motioned to the door. 

"Okay, so yeah, the council probably just got in session. They're waiting for you."

I nodded to Overwatch and Skystar and I went up to the door. This would be fun.

"If you need anything..."

"We'll let you know, thank you," I replied. The guards flanking the door lit their horns and the double doors opened up. When Skystar and I walked into the room, the sight didn't exactly give me hope that everything was going well. A set of seven Klugetowners were sitting at a long table facing the door. Each and every one of them glared at us when we walked into the room. Gulp.

"Alright, so we were told that you'd be the first item on today's agenda," said the one in the very middle. "So what do you want?"

"Uh, hi." Skystar walked closer to the table while I hung back. She was the princess of the other nation that they were supposed to be seeing, after all. "So yeah, my Mom wanted to get an update of everything that's happening here since Equestria--"

"Invaded," another Klugetowner snapped. "Make sure that Novo doesn't have any false ideas or believes any of the propaganda that Antares is no doubt shoving down her throat. He showed up with an army and informed us that we were going to be Equestrians now and that we'd all be so happy and he'd turn the Badlands into a breadbasket and blah, blah, blah. He just used all of it to expand his borders."

"R-right," Skystar replied. "So... there wasn't a battle, though, right?"

A third Klugetowner scoffed. "With what army? Only a few thousand people live in Klugetown, including the children. Antares brought more soldiers than we could possibly match. We were brought into Equestria by threat of the sword, even if Antares pretended otherwise."

"Okayyyyy." Skystar shot me an uneasy look. Yeah, this probably isn't what she was wanting to hear. It wasn't what I wanted to hear either, but I wanted to get to the truth of the matter more than anything. "But, uh, how have things been since Equestria came in and--"

"Took over," a fourth one snapped. 

"Uh, yeah. Took over. Things seem to look better. The houses and stuff are all painted. Things look repaired."

"Yes, yes, we live in a lovely gilded cage," the first Klugetowner replied with a wave of his hand. "We're free to enjoy our town as long as we stay perfectly in line. We're all so happy in our perfect town. So, so happy."

With every word my stomach clenched up into a tighter knot. Was this seriously my brother? He'd never do something like this, especially after Equestria was taken over by the Storm King. He'd know how awful this was.

"Oh, and let's not forget our currency," the second one continued. "I wasn't a millionaire, but I did alright for myself. The second Antares marched in, every single storm buck I had became meaningless. All of the money I'd saved for my entire life became as valuable as a handful of dirt. They were just pretty pieces of paper at that point."

"But didn't Antares... I dunno, exchange your money for bits?" Skystar asked. "He wouldn't leave you broke, right?"

A fifth Klugetowner scoffed. "Oh, that happened eventually. After six months of him and his smarty-pants ponies trying to figure out the exchange rate and how that factored in to each individual brand-new Equestrian citizen. Until he figured that out, we survived by holding our hands out to our new pony masters and saying 'please Mister Pony Sir, can I have some money for food?'"

Skystar didn't reply to that. Truth be told, I'm not exactly sure of what she'd say. The silence let them turn their attention to me. 

"What, pony, no response? No insistence that Prince Antares and his benevolence is the best thing to happen to Klugetown?" He scoffed. "I'm surprised you ponies can move at all. You would think that bowing that low and worshiping those stupid alicorns all of the time would leave you with back problems."

"I do not. Worship. The alicorns," I responded through gritted teeth. "You think I like hearing this?"

"Oh, so we have one of the objectors here," another one said with a roll of her eyes. "Did you team up with the princess here to go back and report to your six buddies about how horrible your wonderful, pretty, perfect rulers actually are? Or are you here to see if we're worse off than the Storm Kingdom?"

I frowned and tilted my head. "The Storm Kingdom? What do you mean?"

"Oh, so we not only have an 'aren't I so great' objector, but one who's had her head under a rock for a few years?" the first one said with a mocking tone. "Your oh-so-wonderful rulers went on a liberation campaign. Pushed what was left out of the Storm King's army out of everywhere he'd conquered, then completely took over the Storm Kingdom. Guess he couldn't help himself when he ran into another territory without a leader. I wonder how he's justifying it to the locals there."

Ugh. I knew that TD did a liberation campaign, but I didn't know that he'd flat-out taken over the Storm Kingdom in what sounded like something beyond just rebuilding. Maybe that was all that he was doing, but I wasn't going to count on it just yet. That just left the question of whether or not they were Equestrians now like Klugetown or if he was just rebuilding then leaving. I hoped that it was the latter. 

"So there you go, Princess," the second Klugetowner snapped. "That's what you can tell your mother. The wise and benevolent Antares rolled in and ruined what he had. I'm not going to pretend like it was a paradise, but it was ours." He scoffed and shook his head. "Not anymore. Probably not ever again. He's done enough damage that even if he pulled his soldiers out tomorrow, we'd still be dependent on him."

"Yeah..." Skystar whispered. "Yeah, I'll be sure to report that to my mom. Queen Novo. You know. So, yeah."

"Yeah." The first Klugetowner crossed his arms. "Any other questions you have for us about how 'wonderful' life is for us now?"

"No, I think we're good, unless you want to tell us more."

"The Klugetowner shrugged. "Why bother? Nothing will change. Tell your mother so she can sadly shake her head and bemoan how bad this is then forget all about it."

"Right." Skystar took a deep breath. "Thank you for your time."

"Yeah, yeah," the third Klugetowner said. "Now go away so we can pretend to have some small scrap of autonomy left."

Skystar silently turned around and walked out of the room, leaving me to follow her. When we were out, the doors closed behind her, and I put my hoof on her shoulder as we walked.

"That was worse than I thought," Skystar said quietly. "I didn't know they felt that way."

"Well, let's just say that I'm not completely surprised that turned out that way," I admitted. "No one is ever happy about being taken over, and the Klugetowners don't even have the fact of invading Equestria first to make sense of everything. My brother just rolled in one day and said that they were Equestrians now. Who would feel great about that?"

"We didn't like it when the Storm King took over Mount Aris," Skystar said. "So I can see why they wouldn't be happy about it." Before I could respond, a determined look crossed Skystar's face, and she marched up to a nearby desk where a mare was doing paperwork. She looked up and smiled when she saw Skystar approaching. 

"Good morning. What can I do for you?"

"I just need a quill and a piece of paper," Skystar replied. "I need to send a letter to my mom."

"Certainly, Your Highness." The mare lit her horn and floated a quill, ink pot, and piece of paper to Skystar. "Let me know if you need us to send that for you."

"No, I should be fine." Skystar took the writing supplies and walked over to a nearby table. She set everything down and began writing. Curious, I looked over her shoulder to see what she was writing, but she finished the note before I could see. She rolled it up and handed it to me. 

"Can you send this to Mom? She'll probably want to know what's going on."

I tilted my head, but slowly nodded and sent the letter to Novo. 

"Do you think anything will come of it?" I asked.

Skystar shrugged. "Maybe, maybe not. It's probably not a bad idea to at least let her know how things are around here. I don't think that your brother is getting reports like that, and he might not care if he did."

"I'd like to think that he would, but I'm not sure anymore," I admitted. I took a deep breath and rubbed the bridge of my muzzle. This was all getting too complicated.


*  *  *  *


Skystar and I decided to stay in Klugetown for a little while longer to see if anything would happen. I didn't think that anything would, but we at least needed to plan for where we'd go next. The next afternoon found Skystar and I back in our hotel room with another platter of snacks. 

"So where do you want to go next?" Skystar asked. "Probably not back to Equestria."

I shook my head and grabbed a turnover off of the tray. "No. Not quite ready for that yet, and I'm still not sure if I'll end up with you guys at the end of everything anyway."

Skystar perked up a bit. "Yeah! You could live with us after this trip! You could visit Equestria every now and again to check up on your family."

"Could do that." 

Truth be told, that would largely depend on what happened with what happened on my little odyssey here. I got the feeling that I'd know when to end it, and where to go live afterward. If I wandered forever, that would be fine, in all honesty. If it was back to Equestria or Mount Aris then that would be okay, too. Or wander for a thousand years then come back to Equestria. My brother is immortal too, right? He'd probably still be there when I got back. 

I was about to take a bite out of my turnover when a knock on the door stopped me. I put it back down on the tray to answer the door. It turned out to be the same concierge from the previous night, and he bowed to the two of us.

"Good evening, Princess Skystar, Miss Scribe. Governor Overwatch sent me to confirm that you two would be at the meeting tomorrow."

I frowned and exchanged a glance with Skystar. "Meeting? What meeting?" I asked.

"The meeting between Prince Antares, the Klugetown Council and Queen Novo," the concierge said. "Er... should I tell him that you won't be there?"

Skystar opened her mouth, but I cut her off before she could speak. "Well, if neither Queen Novo or Prince Antares informed us of the meeting, I suppose that we aren't invited," I said with a shrug. "We will, of course, try to follow up with the two of them, but it sounds like a private affair. "

The concierge tilted his head in a bow again. "Of course. Governor Overwatch was just contacting you to confirm one way or the other. I will have him informed and as always, if you need anything, don't hesitate to contact us."

Thank you, sir," I replied. "Have a good day." 

When he shut the door, I went back to my bed and laid down, picking up my turnover again. Skystar put her own turnover back on the tray and frowned at me. 

"You have that look."

I turned to her and raised my eyebrow. "What look?"

"That look where you're about to do something. You're going to sneak into that meeting, aren't you?"

I scoffed and rolled my eyes. "Now why would I do that?"


*  *  *  *


Okay, so maybe my best friend knew me pretty well after we lived with each other for a year and a half. After conjuring up some books and, for funsies, a Gameboy for Skystar, I turned myself invisible then flew over to the compound. Even as I approached I could see the hustle and bustle of a royal visit. Two of them, I suppose. There were dozens of both ponies and hippogriffs moving around the compound doing something or other in preparation of the big meeting. I even saw a small handful of Klugetowners around, too. Most of them looked like members of council that I'd met with. Hopefully they'd be honest with TD about everything they were feeling. If he intimidated them enough that they weren't fully open with him, I doubt he'd ever get the idea. 

While there were guards and stuff everywhere, I could go through walls as well, so nobody was going to stop me from getting wherever I wanted to go. I floated over the crowd so that I didn't run into everybody, but I followed most of them to where the meeting was presumably being held. It appeared to be in the same room where Skystar and I met the council of locals. With nothing else for it, I phased through the wall and into the room.

And that's when I saw my brother up close for the first time in over eighteen months.

He didn't look any different. Guess that came with being an alicorn. He was talking with a soldier right next to him who I presumed was the replacement of either Blaze or Rapids. He stopped talking for a brief moment and his ear twitched when I entered the room, but it was brief enough that I considered that I imagined it. Novo was sitting at the opposite end of the long table, while several council members were talking their places at the table, while Governor Overwatch sat on the chair to TD's left. It would have been odd for me to take a seat, so I took to the air again and conjured up an invisible platform for myself where I could lie down and watch the meeting. 

This was going to be interesting.

It wasn't more than about fifteen minutes before Governor Overwatch stood up and slapped his hoof on the table, causing the low din of everyone talking among themselves to die down. Once everyone had turned their attention to him, he cleared his throat.

"Good evening, everycreature. May I welcome you to Klugetown." He bowed his head to my brother. "Prince Antares, it is lovely to have you here." TD nodded back, and Overwatch nodded to Novo. "And Queen Novo. We are delighted to extend to you our hospitality."

"Thank you," Novo replied, ignoring the Klugetowner who let out a disgusted scoff. "I hope that this meeting is productive. The report I was given was... interesting."

"Yes, and I'm curious as to what was in that report," TD said, causing my stomach to flip. I hadn't heard his voice in a long time. "I was not aware that you were keeping an eye on the situation here."

A slight frown crossed Novo's face. "Well, now that we have completed the reconstruction of our home, I can focus on what's going on outside of Mount Aris. The report I got told me that things aren't going so well around here, and I'm worried."

"Not going well?" The Klugetowner who had scoffed narrowed her eyes and shook her head. "Oh, I wonder why that might be. These ponies just showed up one day and said that they owned us!"

"I thought that annexation was the proper course of action given both the current state of the town I observed when I was here during the Storm War, and regarding my plans for the Badlands," TD replied neutrally. "I understand that any transition like this will be a bit tumultuous, but--"

"Tumultuous?" the Klugetowner spat. "I woke up one morning to find you and your army on our doorstep informing us that you would be enslaving us!"

"I did not enslave you," TD replied. "You are free to do as you please, and we have used and will continue to use our resources to improve life for your town."

"Oh, you're going to make our gilded cage nicer?" another member of the council growled. "We might not have lived in a paradise, but at lease it was ours! We'd take Verko and his ilk any day before another moment under you!"

"Hm." TD looked over to Novo. "And what are your thoughts in all of this?"

"I'm wondering why somebody who just had his country taken over by someone else feels like it's okay to turn around and do it to somebody else. Klugetown is on my borders, so it concerns me."

"I assure you that we have no interest in taking over any part of your kingdom," TD insisted. "It is my hope that our two nations can continue to have a strong alliance and working relationship and that we both benefit from our efforts in the Badlands, which are advancing at an even better rate than I had hoped. At current estimates, we'll be able to begin harvesting vast quantities of food in the next five to seven years. 

"Do you honestly think that we care at all about what you're doing to that desert?" the first Klugetowner snapped. "Make a bunch of food. Have a few new cities." She stood up and slammed her hand on the table. "Just leave us out of it!"

TD exchanged a brief glance with Overwatch before turning his attention back to the others at the table. "It is my hope that--"

"Oh who cares what your hope is, Antares," she snapped. "We've been independent for hundreds of years! Now you come along, comfortable in your bloody armor, and take all of that away." She reached into her pocket and pulled out a bit which she tossed in front of TD. "And these? What are we supposed to do with these? I had good good money saved up, and that all went away when you decided to make all of that useless. But that was our only choice, wasn't it? How many of us would you have slaughtered before you took control? All of us? Wipe out the local population and then you can do whatever you liked?"

"We also have our concerns," Novo chimed in. "You may not have an interest in Mount Aris, but what about the forest between Klugetown and us? Are you intending to take that as well and turn it into whatever you want?"

TD shook his head. "No. Any work that would happen in that area would have to be a joint effort between our two nations."

"And what of us?" the first Klugetowner snapped. "Couldn't we have been extended that courtesy? We're miserable, Antares! Everything that we were was taken when you arrived with your army. Now how can you just leave? We'd be left in shambles."

TD paused for a minute at that. I knew him long enough to know what it looked like when he was thinking. Even after becoming an alicorn, I could still pick up on some of his tells. Finally he spoke up again. 

"There is a lot to think about here. Thank you both for this information. Celestia and I will do everything we can to make sure that everycreature comes out on top, as we have always wanted."

"At least you're probably being nicer to us than the Storm Kingdom," another Klugetowner muttered. TD briefly glanced over at him but didn't comment on it. Too bad. I was kind of hoping that he'd let something slip about how all of that was going. 

"Well, I can see that you don't care," the first Klugetowner said. The rest of them stood up and began filing out the door without even a final parting shot. TD didn't make any effort to assuage any of their worries as they left, which is what I'd probably be doing. Maybe he was starting to reconsider things. Maybe he'd see that the Klugetown annexation had been a mistake and he'd try to fix what damage he'd caused before getting out of town. I couldn't see the Badlands reformation being a bad thing, but Klugetown was taking it too far. 

Once the locals had left, only one of TD's guards, one of Novo's guards and Overwatch remained. Overwatch was looking nervously between Novo and TD, and I could tell that he desperately wanted to say something, but knew it wasn't his place to speak before two rulers.

"So..." A small smirk crossed TD's face for the first time. "How did you get the report of what was happening here? I obviously wasn't hiding anything, but I'm curious as to what you were told that led you to call this meeting."

"My source is irrelevant," Novo replied. "I called this meeting so that we could both get a better understanding of what exactly was happening here. I didn't object to the annexation as I had other things to worry about after the war, but now that we're steady again, I think it's time to examine what is happening just outside of our borders."

"Makes sense." TD tilted his head to Novo. "Though I obviously wasn't lying about just taking the forest between Klugetown and Mount Aris. If anything is going to happen to that area, I want us to both be in agreement. I swear on my daughters."

"I see." Novo sighed and stood up. "If you want my advice: fix what damage you've already done, then give Klugetown back to the locals. They're not ponies, Antares. They never will be."

"Yeah," TD muttered, standing up himself. "There's going to be a lot of work done regardless. I also wasn't lying when I said that we just want what's best for everycreature. That's one of the big reasons we're putting so much into reforming the Badlands."

"No one objects to that, Antares," Novo insisted. "It's Klugetown's annexation that is the issue, though on that matter..." Novo's eyes narrowed slightly. "What is happening to the Storm Kingdom?"

TD shrugged. "We're doing our best to stabilize the country. It was mostly mop-up when we pushed the Storm Creatures out of the lands the Storm King had taken over. We didn't have to do much to take over the Storm Kingdom, though there was a bit of a fight. Their biggest issue right now is that a huge chunk of their male population was destroyed during the Storm War. The Storm King used a lot of them for his invasions. He'd have to to take over as much as he did and occupy it."

Novo grimaced. "Very well. We shall speak more on this later. For the moment, I have another meeting. If you'll excuse me."

"Of course," TD replied with a nod while I silently floated back to the ground. Once she'd left, TD turned to Overwatch and his guard. "If you could leave me for a moment."

"Of course, Prince Antares," Overwatch said with a bow. He quickly left the room with the bodyguard behind him, leaving just myself and TD. I was glad that I was invisible.

I held my breath as TD began scanning the room. He lit his horn for a spell, but seemed to think better of it as he powered his horn down after a few seconds. I thought about just quietly going back through the walls, but my instincts said that if I moved, he'd be able to sense it somehow. My stomach clenched when he stared right were I was standing and seemed to linger there for a second longer than usual, staring right into my eyes. I might have imagined it, as he quickly continued looking around. Finally, he took a deep, quiet breath.

"Interesting," he muttered to himself.

With that, he turned around and walked out the door, leaving me standing perfectly still like a deer in headlights.
> Next Move
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The second TD left the room, I bolted out of the room and straight out of the compound. I could barely breathe as I flew back to the hotel as fast as I could. Seeing TD like that was... hard. The politician way that he talked, the callous view of things... was there anything left of my brother in there? Had the wars changed him that much?

I made it back to the hotel after a short while and flew straight through the window of the room. Skystar was reclining on the bed playing the Gameboy, and she yipped in surprise when I re-appeared in the room.

"Kristen! You scared me!" She picked up the Gamboy and frowned. "And made me vulnerable. One of those turtle things got me."

"Sorry," I muttered, trudging over to my bed. Skystar tilted her head and got off of her own bed.

"How did it go? Did you talk to your brother?"

I shook my head. "No, but I think that he suspected that I was there, if he didn't flat-out know. There was a moment when I feel like he was looking right at me and could tell where I was." 

Skystar grimaced. "Yeah, that probably wasn't very fun."

"No." I reclined back on the bed and stared at the ceiling. "Hearing him talk like that was hard. He didn't seem anything like my brother at all. He didn't seem like he had any sympathy for the locals. He talked like a politician who was annoyed that everyone was there questioning. The best I can hope is that a few things got through to him and he'll actually do something to help. Maybe it could snowball from there."

"Hope so," Skystar said. 

Before I could continue, a knock on the door brought me out of my thoughts. I sighed and walked over to the door. I really didn't want to deal with this kind of crap right now. I just wanted to rest and gather my thoughts. Maybe take a nap. I wasn't in the mood for visitors.

But that kind of changed when I opened the door and saw who had arrived. I grimaced and flattened my ears as I took a step back. I didn't mean to, but I was surprised. Skystar herself squeaked and glanced at the window like she wanted to fly out, but seemed to think better of it. She shot the newcomer an uneasy smile and waved.

"Uh... hi, Mom. What are you doing here?"

"I came to talk to you," Novo said, coming into the room while two of her guards took positions next to the door. Great. This wasn't who I wanted to talk to. "I received your note. It was very interesting."

"Oh, yeah, that." Skystar chuckled uneasily and rubbed the back of her neck. "Yeah, I thought that you could maybe help."

"I'm not sure I did, but if nothing else, it was enlightening to talk to Prince Antares about the situation." Novo looked over to me and let out an amused scoff. "And I think you can drop the disguise now, Princess Kristen."

I rolled my eyes but waved my hoof and turned back to normal. "Too much risk that somebody would recognize me," I said. "I didn't want anyone telling my brother that I was here."

"Understandable, but I think he knows anyway," Novo replied. "I mentioned that my daughter had left with you, and he probably put the pieces together from there with the meeting."

I grumbled and rubbed my temple. "Great. One of the reasons I left was so that he wouldn't know where I was. I know he knew where I was when I was helping you guys rebuild Mount Aris." 

"Indeed," Novo said. She glanced at the mostly eaten tray of snacks on Skystar's bed and took a cracker off of it. "I admit that I do have some concerns about everything happening here. I do not think that Antares will try to push past Klugetown to annex the forest between our nations, but the possibility is there that he begins trying to make some kind of deal with me. I'd refuse, of course, but he is immortal. He has all the time in the world to enact any plans that he might have."

"Makes me wonder why Celestia and Luna aren't stopping him," I growled. 

Novo shrugged. "I do not know. Maybe it's the idea of needing to get their hooves dirty a touch for the greater good. None of us are unhappy that he's trying to improve the Badlands, if he succeeds it'll help everycreature, but Klugetown is another matter. I think that on top of trying to help the locals, the reformation of the Badlands will go smoother if he has Klugetown. You can't encroach on somebody else's territory if it's already yours."

"So what do you think the odds are that he gives Klugetown back to the locals?" I asked. 

Novo gave an amused scoff. "Close to zero. Maybe he'll try some things to help the locals accept things more. He'll listen to their problems and give some concessions to make them feel better. He won't just let it go, though." She smirked at me. "But that's probably the vibe you got when you were at the meeting."

I rolled my eyes and sat down on my bed. "I'm not even going to ask how you knew I was there."

"It's not too hard to puzzle out. You're the chaos god, it's your brother, and the two of you are the ones who brought this to my attention. There was no way that you weren't going to turn invisible or put on a disguise to get into the meeting."

"Yeah, yeah," I replied with a wave of my hoof. "So what are you going to do now?"

Novo shrugged. "I'm not sure what I can do. I obviously won't go to war with him to liberate Klugetown, and he wouldn't appreciate it if I called a meeting with the griffins, minotaurs and zebras to put pressure on him. Klugetown is tiny, and Antares's plans in the region are going to benefit them as well. I don't think he'd do anything bad to us, but I'd rather not be on his bad side."

"So there's nothing anyone can do for them," Skystar muttered, deflating a little bit.

Novo shook her head. "Not at the moment, no. We'll see what happens later, but  for right now, he's not going to give them their town back."

I sighed and plopped down on the bed and draped my foreleg over my eyes. "Wonderful." I glanced over at Novo when another thought struck me. "So what about the Storm Kingdom? Do you have any idea of what's happening there?"

Novo shook her head. "Only what your brother told me at the meeting and a few small rumors. Given that it's a few weeks from Equestria by airship, any news coming from there would be sparse."

My eyes narrowed. "So he could be doing bad stuff there and nobody would know?"

"While I think that your brother has the best intentions for the Storm Kingdom, anything happening there would take a while to get back to him," Novo replied. 

Yeah, that could be an issue. Given that TD knew what the aftermaths of both World Wars back on Earth were, he'd make an effort to rebuild as much as he could. Make some allies if he could. But if something happened in the Storm Kingdom where, for example, the governor he'd placed there was abusive, that could do a lot of damage. Governor Overwatch seemed like he was trying his best, but I couldn't call him the most competent governor I'd ever seen. He wasn't cruel, as far as I could see. Given how close Klugetown was to Equestria, I'd have to imagine that it would be harder to hide any abuses here than the Storm Kingdom.

""Well, it was a pleasant surprise to hear from you, Skystar," Novo said. "I was not surprised in the slightest that Princess Kristen left, but I am surprised that you decided to go with her."

"Uh, yeah, I thought it would be a good idea. See the world. Some cool stuff," Skystar replied with a bit of a blush.

"I see."

Skystar gulped and scooted back a few inches. "I'm not gonna be, like, grounded when I come back to Mount Aris, am I?"

Novo let out a quiet chuckle and shook her head. "You are an adult, Skystar. If you want to spend a little time journeying with Princess Kristen, I cannot stop you." Novo turned her attention to me and narrowed her eyes. "I trust that you are keeping her safe."

"Uh, yeah," I insisted. "I'm not here to get either of us hurt."

"You cannot be hurt," Novo growled.

"Yeah, but I'm saying that I'm going to protect the two of us," I replied. "Just..." I held up my hoof. "We're going to be fine."

"Hm. Very well." Novo turned back to Skystar. "You are, of course, welcome to come home whenever you desire. We'd be happy to have you back." 

Ugh. I'd seen enough parenting to know that Novo was trying to guilt trip Skystar into coming back with her. I could understand that Novo wanted to make sure that Skystar was okay, but like she said: she was an adult. If she wanted to travel around the world with me, neither of us could stop her.

Well, being the lord of all chaos, I probably could, but... it was kind of nice having her around.


*  *  *  *


That night I was staring up at the ceiling. Skystar was still playing on the Gameboy, which was good, I guess. It was nice that I'd made something that she really enjoyed. It gave me some time to think. Skystar and I had already finished dinner, and a glance at the clock on my bedside table told me that it was just past midnight. 

I heard Skystar groan as Mario once again was killed by something, and she turned the Gameboy off. She put it on her bedside table and rolled over to face me. 

"You have that thinking look again."

"Yeah," I muttered. "I think I might be thinking of a dumb idea. Or a good one." 

"Yeah? What?"

I took a deep breath and glanced out the window. "I guess it's just all of the stuff I've been hearing about the Storm Kingdom. Yeah, they took over a bunch of countries including Equestria, but I can't shake the feeling that things aren't going so well over there. TD might not want to get revenge, but somebody else could be. Maybe I'm wrong and their lives have improved a lot, but I just don't get that feeling, especially seeing how the Klugetowners are feeling."

"I guess," Skystar said. "Which means that I think I can guess what your crazy idea is. You wanna go there."

I groaned and nodded. "Yeah. I don't feel like I'm gonna feel comfortable about it unless I see for myself. Maybe if things are going well there, I can do what I did for Mount Aris and help with the rebuilding. I know that they took Equestria over and killed some of TD's best friends. The women and children didn't. Plus it makes me feel weird that enough of the males were killed that the species might die out after a while."

"I hope not," Skystar said. "I don't think an entire species should be wiped out because of a war."

"Me neither," I said. 

"Sounds like you've made up your mind, then."

I squeezed my eyes shut and growled a few words to myself before responding. 

"Yeah, I guess I kind of have." I rolled over to face her. "You sure you want to come with? It'll take us a month to get there. I'm not good enough to just teleport us there."

"Pshh, I'm totally up for it!" Skystar said with a wave of her claws. "I want to make sure everything's good, too! Plus it'll be good experience for when I become queen of the hippogriffs. If I get some life experiences, that can only be good, right?"

"I guess so," I said with a shrug. "Well, nothing else for it, I suppose. We'll leave at dawn."

I hoped that I was doing the right thing.
> On the Road Again
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I hadn't gotten any sleep by the time that dawn broke. I'd spent most of the night just staring at the ceiling thinking about everything. I wasn't holding my breath that TD would give Klugetown its freedom back. He'd think that what he was doing was all for the greater good. I quietly scoffed t myself. "The greater good" was one of the worst phrases in all of language. With an entire town unwillingly under his hoof, who was the greater good really for? I know that he insisted that it was for everybody, but I wasn't so sure. 

I slid out of bed once it got bright out enough that the sun illuminated the entire area. Skystar was still fast asleep, but it was time to be on the road again. I went over to her bed and gently shook her. 

"Hey Skystar? Time to get up. We need to hit the road."

Skystar groaned and turned away from me. "Five more minutes," she groaned.

"Come on, it's time to get going. I materialized a cup of coffee and turned her back around. "Here. This should help you wake up."

"I don't like coffee," Skystar grumbled as she sat up and glared at the cup.

I rolled my eyes and waved my hoof over the cup. "There. Now it tastes like orange juice."

"Okay, okay," Skystar replied, taking the cup and draining it all in one go. Her eyes widened as the coffee hit her, and she shot right out of bed. "Whoa! What the heck was that?"

"Just one of the finest cups of chaos-brand coffee, guaranteed to get you out of bed with enough energy in the morning." I dissipated the cup and motioned to the window. "It's dawn. Time for us to be headed out."

"Oh yeah." Skystar got out of bed and stretched out her wings. "So where are we going first? I know that you said that you wanted to go to the Storm Kingdom to make sure that everything was okay, but how are we getting there?"

"Well, we're going to fly, I guess," I said with a shrug. "At least until we find a better way to get there."

Skystar frowned and tilted her head. "But we wanna get to it through the most direct point, right?"

I raised my eyebrow. "Yeah... and?"

"Well, the most direct point is through Equestria."

My eyes widened, and I spun around to face the window. No, she couldn't be right. I hadn't thought about that! Given that there wasn't anything to the south of Mount Aris, and when I took into account the direction the Storm King's airships had come when they attacked Canterlot... I groaned and facehooved. 

"Yeah. Equestria. Right."

Truth be told, I was hoping to avoid Equestria entirely on this trip. I mean, sure, I could go through disguised, but that would be a touch harder with Skystar. I wasn't good enough to straight change her species, and last I'd heard from Novo, TD's spy network was almost as extensive as Cadance's. He wasn't on some 1984 kick, I doubted that he knew every single thing that every one of his subjects was doing, but a pony with a hippogriff coming in from the south would probably grab his attention, and he would put it together pretty easily.

"So what do you want to do?" Skystar asked. "Should we just... go around Equestria?"

"Only if we want to add another month to our trip," I grumbled, tapping my hoof on the floor in thought. "I mean... obviously I can disguise myself pretty well, but you stick out a touch. Obviously hippogriffs aren't unheard of in Equestria since the end of the Storm War, but traveling with me would make you stick out more."

"I get that, and I know that Prince Antares would probably know where you were, but would he actually do anything about it?"

"I don't know," I said through gritted teeth. "I know he knew where I was when I was helping you and your mom with rebuilding Mount Aris, but I think that since I was living in Mount Aris which is a sovereign nation, he wasn't going to do anything."

Not that that helped with Klugetown, but Klugetown didn't have a ruling monarch, and TD shot an icicle through the eye of the closest thing Klugetown had to a ruler. 

"Yeah, that might be part of it, but..." Skystar uneasily rubbed the side of her leg. "What if, I dunno, you're being a little paranoid about your brother? He knows you're here right now, and we're technically in Equestria. He's not breaking down the door to force you back to Baltimare, right? Maybe he's fine with you doing your own thing for a bit."

I scoffed and shook my head. "Yeah, no. He's probably hoping an opportunity to really confront me arises, then he'll pop out of nowhere and give me some politician-speak about why I should come back, then wave away anything I say." My jaw tightens and I let out a quiet growl. "It's pretty much what he just did to the Klugetown council he set up."

"Yeah, I get that, but you know why he annexed Klugetown," Skystar said. "What reason does he have to force you to come back?"

"Oh, he'd think of something," I replied. "He'd probably give some spiel about how we're siblings and need to stick together and we're the only connection the other has to Earth." 

"Does that sound like him?" Skystar asked. 

I whirled around and glared at Skystar. "I don't know what's left of my brother anymore! All of the fighting and political stuff and murder and torture and everything else I've seen and heard him do shows me that I don't recognize him at all! The TD that I knew had empathy and listened to people and wanted to make sure that everything was okay in the end. This 'Prince Antares' guy saying he's my brother isn't like that! He doesn't care what Klugetown wants, just what he thinks is best for his subjects. when I saw him in that meeting, it was almost like he was annoyed that these children were bothering him when he had actually important stuff to deal with."

Skystar flinched back. "Kristen..."

"What, are you going to try and say that I'm overreacting and that I'm just being silly and naive? Maybe I'm just being stupid and the wonderful, all-knowing Prince Antares is going to make everything better and he always knows what he's doing and it's always awesome and wonderful and amazing!"

"N-no, that's not what I was going to say at all," Skystar whispered. 

"Maybe something about he has responsibilities now and can't be bothered to think about his silly sister and her stupid ideas!" I growled and began pacing back and forth. "Maybe 'eh, he's in a rough headspace right now because of the war, but give it a few years and he'll go back to the brother you've always known!"

"Kristen, I don't--"

"He's the 'God of War' now!" I said, making quotation marks with my wings. "He has to be more violent. He protects Equestria from all kinds of nasty things! Sure, sometimes that includes torture and murder, but if it's for the greater good of Equestria, who cares? They're all just faceless threats to him! No more real than a bad guy in a video game! I just..."

All of the energy from my rant evaporates, leaving me more tired than I've felt in a long time. I collapse down onto my haunches and put my hooves over my eyes. I take in a deep, shaky breath as Skystar takes a few steps toward me and puts her claws on my shoulder. I flinch at the touch, but don't shrug her off. 

"I just want my brother back," I whispered. "I lost him for five years, then when I finally get him back, he's this whole other person. What he's gone through would change anyone, I get that, but I didn't think he was that far gone."

"It's okay," Skystar said, sitting next to me and putting her wing over my shoulder. "I know it's gotta be hard to see him like that."

"He just doesn't seem to care anymore," I groaned. "It's like everyone except his family and maybe his subjects are just... complications or things to be manipulated. Faceless. When I see him kill so casually, it scares me. When I killed Tempest, she looked so scared of me. I could have just let her get back into the palace. Maybe we could have talked something out. Instead I just shattered the balcony and let her fall. I couldn't hear anything but her screams, and for the briefest moment I saw her falling. She was trying to find something to break her fall, and... I've never seen anyone look so scared."

"Yeah, but she was trying to kill Maia and Nymeria," Skystar pointed out. 

"I know, I know, and the Storm Creatures I killed were taking over Equestria," I muttered. "I get why all of that had to happen, but that doesn't make it any easier. I'll remember what happened to Tempest for the rest of my life. I'll always be able to hear her scream and see her face. For TD, though, he wouldn't have given it a second thought. He didn't really seem to care about what he did to the Storm King. It was just something that he had the right to do, or something like that. However he wants to justify it to himself. And that's the entire point, isn't it? all of this, everything I've seen him do in the past few years, it's freaking me out with how he justifies everything to himself. Nothing he does is bad because it's always for the good of Equestria."

Tears began welling up in my eyes, and I leaned in a little closer to Skystar's hug. "I just want my brother back. I don't know how to handle this high-and-mighty pony prince that everyone assures me is my brother. People change, I get that, but he's gone in a direction that scares me."

"I know, and I can't imagine how that feels," Skystar said. "But if you went back to Equestria, do you really think that he'd appear and try and force you to go back to Baltimare with him?"

"I dunno. Maybe," I muttered. 

"I don't think so," Skystar replied, standing up and extending her claw to me. "And let's say he does. Let's imagine that he appears out of nowhere the second you step hoof inside of Equestria. Well, it's a good thing that I'm here, isn't it?"

I wipe my eyes with the back of my hoof and give Skystar a frown. "Huh?"

"Well I'm obviously not going to let him manipulate you or force you to go back," Skystar replied. "If he tries, then our resolve will make him go away and leave you to travel the world and make it a better place! He won't stop us."

I let out a weak chuckle and take Skystar's claw. "I guess so. I guess I'm just not ready to talk to him again."

"Well then, if he does show up, let me do the talking," Skystar replied. "And I really don't think that he's going to. I'm sure he misses you a lot, but if he tries to force you back, he's only going to drive you away further, and he's smart enough to know that. Besides..." Skystar shrugged. "You two are immortal. You have literally forever to make up with each other."

"Yeah, I guess so." I took a deep breath and looked back out the window. "So we should probably get going, then, I guess. Wasting daylight."

"Yeah, we should," Skystar said. "And who knows? All of this could turn out much better than you think it will."

"Yeah. I guess it could."

Maybe it could. Maybe Skystar was right. I still wasn't putting all of my chips on it, though.
> Eden
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It wasn't more than about an hour of flying before I could see what was beyond the outskirts of Klugetown. Back when I'd been in the badlands with TD, all we saw was sand, rocks and the shimmering in the distance of extreme heat. If I hadn't been able to conjure up food and water, TD might not have made it through the badlands in his state. However, even from where we were in the air, I could see the massive change.

There didn't appear to be a scrap of desert left. It had been replaced with grass and buildings and crops of every kind that I could think of, most notably corn and wheat. Ponies of all tribes bustled around, each doing whatever jobs that had been assigned to them to improve one of the worst parts of the planet. I had to admit that things looked... good. However many bits TD had poured into this, it seemed to be working. 

"I don't think we're going to die of dehydration going through this," Skystar says as we pass by a group of ponies bundling up various grains. "I think we could live here for quite some time."

"Yeah, most likely," I agreed. "I have to admit that TD's probably right about how much this project will help everybody around the world. Equestria hasn't wanted for food in a long time as far as I know, but, yeah, this is going to change things when it gets fully going."

"Wonder how much this is costing Equestria," Skystar said.

I shrugged. "Trillions, I'll bet. What I'm curious about is if it's sustainable. Equestria is the most prosperous nation on the planet, but who knows how long he can keep this going."

"Well, with him, Celestia and Luna being immortal--" my ear flicked at that. "I'm sure they'll adjust accordingly. Celestia and Luna have been around a long time, and something on this scale would also take their approval, so I'm sure that they have put a lot of thought into this as well."

"Probably." I stopped and stared at what was clearly a group home of some sort. Adult ponies sat around and tables eating breakfast while various foals played around them. One or two of them were even sitting around, of all things... a lake. Wow. What TD and I wouldn't have given for one of those back when we were going through this place the first time. If one didn't know better, they'd say that this was some place from the heart of Equestria, not somewhere that had been the planet's worst desert a few short years ago. The air even felt cleaner. 

My heart skipped a beat when an earth pony mare with a golden coat and blonde mane looked up and noticed the two of us. She smiled and waved at us to come closer. Skystar and I exchanged a glance, and the mare stood up and walked over to the short fence separating us. 

"Howdy, strangers." She extended her hoof to me. "Mah name's Golden Fields. You two ain't from around here, looks like."

"Uh, no," I said, tentatively taking Golden's hoof and shaking it. 

"Yeah, we're just... traveling through."

"From Klugetown, Ah'll wager," she said, motioning down the road we'd come from. "Been on the road long?"

I shook my head. "Just since dawn."

"Long enough, then." She motioned over to the rows of tables behind her. "Stay a spell and have some breakfast. Got plenty to go around, and somepony has to eat it. Two of you might as well help."

"Oh, uh, thanks, but we wouldn't want to be a bother," I said.

Golden snorted and rolled her eyes. "It's all already made up, and the plates are stacked waiting for somepony to use 'em. It'd be more of a bother to put away more food than less, and you two might as well not go on hungry." She hopped over the fence and started nudging me toward a small gate. "Wouldn't be very neighborly of us ta just let ya walk past all this food when you've both probably got a lot of travelin' ta do. Come on. Won't take no for an answer."

"I see that," I said, walking toward the gate. "Well, if it's not too much of a bother, I suppose."

"Would have offered either way, but it ain't," Golden said. "You two just take a seat, and we'll bring ya out some food, alright?"

Skystar and I walked over to one of the wooden tables and sat down at one of the benches. The other ponies around us all smiled and nodded to us. It would have creeped me out if I hadn't been through this kind of thing whenever TD and I went to one of the Apple Family's get-togethers and been treated the same way. Without that, I might see this as some kind of cult commune. A few of the ponies moved from their spots and sat down across from us. 

"Welcome," a middle-aged gray stallion said, extending his hoof to us. "I'm Barley Grower, and this is my wife Wheatgrass."

"Charmed," I said, shaking both of their hooves. "I'm Silver Scribe, and this is Skystar."

"Pleased to meet you," Wheatgrass said. "You two just passin' through, or are ya new here?"

"Just passing through," I said. "Golden Harvest saw us walking by and invited us to breakfast."

"Glad she did," Barley Grower said with a smile and nod. "Always nice to meet new ponies."

"Yeah." I looked around some more. Gosh, it didn't feel like the same place at all. Not a single skull of a dead animal that had died of dehydration around anywhere. I even spotted a pig pen with half a dozen pigs lounging around in the mud. I briefly wondered for a moment if we'd have some breakfast ham, but these are ponies, and even pegasi only eat fish. I mean, I could eat meat if I wanted to, and had on occasion, but that might be a little off here.

"So, where are you two headed? Somewhere in Equestria, or are you passing through that?" Wheatgrass asked.

"Just passing through Equestria," I said. "We have something in another country to do, and Equestria is the most direct route."

"A diplomatic mission for Mount Aris," Skystar chimed in. Top secret, lots of hush hush and all that."

I actually managed a small smile at that, and rolled my eyes a bit. Having said that, though, I'd imagine that if anything was going on, Novo would want to know about it. The question would be if TD knew about anything untoward going on there. Based on how he treated Klugetown, I couldn't imagine that he was particularly nice to the country that had actually invaded Equestria and caused the death of fifteen thousand of his subjects. 

In any case...

"So how long have you guys been here?" I asked. 

"Pretty much since the start," Wheatgrass said with a smile, grabbing her husband's hoof. "It wasn't always this lush as Ah'm sure you well know, but the crowns did a lot to keep us safe and healthy while we turned it into what you see now. Prince Antares 'specially did a lot of work down here in the early days."

"How long did it take before it became like this?" Skystar asked. 

"Oh, probably about a year," Barley Grower said, scratching his jaw in thought. "We had a huge party after the first successful harvest. The first three barely yielded anything edible, but each one got better as the methods and technology advanced." We're going to start exporting in the next year or so, I think. Crystal Empire, I think."

"Yeah, how are things up there?" I asked. "I know that Prince Shining Armor died during the Storm War, but I didn't hear about anything much after that."

Barley Grower sighed and flattened his ears. "It was definitely difficult for Princess Cadance. Haven't heard a lot about what she's up to, but she's still ruling, as far as I know. We have the odd crystal pony in our little community, and they were talking about how she's just as paranoid as Prince Antares is these days."

I frowned and tilted my head. "Paranoid? What do you mean?"

"Means neither of them are gonna get surprised again like what happened with the Storm King," Wheatgrass said. "They've got information networks 'round the world, last I heard. The ponies in control of the Storm Kingdom give him pretty regular reports on what's goin' on."

I grimaced at that. I knew that he was expanding his spy network, but I'd hoped that he wasn't on some 1984 kick. I'd hoped that he wouldn't be a totalitarian dictator once he took over, but again, seeing how he'd treated Klugetown didn't give me the highest hopes that he was being really nice. 

Golden Fields chose that time to come back to the table with two plates balanced on her back. She gave Skystar and I a friendly smile and slid them off, putting them in front of us. Toast and eggs. I gave Golden Fields a grateful smile and picked up one of the pieces of toast."

"You two eat on up now," Golden Fields said, sitting next to Wheatgrass. "Let me know if you'd like some more."

"Thank you," Skystar said, picking up her fork and digging into her eggs. "Thanks for being really nice to us."

"Ain't a problem at all," Golden Fields said with a wave of her hoof. "Like Ah said, it wouldn't be neighborly ta just let you walk by all the food and not feed ya."

"Well, we appreciate it," I said. "We were just talking about how long they'd been here."

"Ah, yeah, Ah've been here from the beginning, same as them," Golden Fields said. "From Baltimare originally. When Prince Antares asked for volunteers..." Her smile widened. "Well, as a devoted Antarian, Ah couldn't exactly say no, could Ah? He's done so much for Equestria that Ah can't just pass up the opportunity ta help him when he needs me, can Ah? Same reason Ah volunteered for the war."

I flinched back at that, hopefully subtly enough that they didn't notice. Yeah, it was always odd to hear ponies talking about worshiping my brother. Granted, I had the occasional fringe group of ponies who worshiped me for being the chaos lord, but TD's church was many, many times larger than my cult, and it had only grown since the wars. 

"We're Antarians ourselves," Wheatgrass said. "Too old to fight in the wars when the time came, but we're here doing our part."

"Oh... uh... yeah. Cool. Good for you," I muttered, focusing on the suddenly really interesting piece of toast in my hoof. 

"We were gonna hit the chapel after breakfast, if you'd like to join," Golden Fields said. "If not, that's totally okay in our book. Just thought we'd offer."

"Yeah, uh, we were probably going to hit the road after this," I said. "Thanks for the offer, though." I glanced over at Skystar who had finished her food already. I finished my eggs and pushed my plate away before clearing my throat and standing up. "It was all really good. Thanks."

"Of course, darlin'," Golden Fields said as her and the other two stood up. "You change your mind about the service, the chapel is right down the way yer goin', and hey..." Golden Fields winked at me. "If when yer travels are done and you feel like ya want ta do somethin' meaningful, we'd be happy ta have you two back. Always room for another helping hoof." She nodded to Skystar. "Or claw, as it were. This place is..." A small smile crossed her face, and she took in a deep breath, enjoying the morning air. "Paradise. Yeah, that's the best word for it. Good hard, rewarding work with ponies that all love ya in one of the lushest areas in the world. Perfection is what it is. Wasn't like this before, but now, thanks to Prince Antares and all of the hard work goin' on, Ah'd say it's the best place in all of Equestria."

"I'll keep that in mind," I said quietly. "For the moment, we should get going. Lot of traveling we have to do." 

"'Course," Wheatgrass said. "But we're happy ta have you two here all the same."

"We were happy to be here," Skystar said. "The food was good."

Without another word, I walked back through the gate, Skystar right behind me. She put on a bit of speed to walk next to me. "You okay?" she asked. 

"Dunno," I said. "Not really, I guess. It's nice to see that everything is going so smoothly over here, and yeah, it's cool that there's going to be a lot more food around the world thanks to what he's doing here, but just the way that they... worship my brother. I guess I have a unique perspective on all of that both because I grew up with him and..."

I remembered the piercing screams of the Storm King, breaking through the sounds of Tempest's final wails. 

"I don't think they know the real him. Because of what they've seen him do and what he's told them, they love him more than anything. I don't think they would if they saw what he actually did to the Storm King, or if they were in that meeting with the Klugetowners."

"Maybe not, but he has done objectively good things around here," Skystar pointed out. "There are a lot of happy ponies here since he changed things, and I guess every ruler has a dark er side, right? I know that not everything that Mom has done was all sunshine and rainbows. She'd had to do things that I didn't like, and when I take over for her, I'm sure that there will be some things that I don't like that I'll have to do."

"I get that, I get that," I said with a wave of my hoof. "I just wish that he wasn't so... uncaring and sadistic sometimes. What he did to the Storm King and Capper and Verko wasn't justice, it was revenge. I guess I'm just worried that if I see him again, he'll be the same way that he was in the meeting in Klugetown. Blank, emotionless, robotic, unfriendly... it wouldn't surprise me if I heard that he hadn't cracked a humorous, sarcastic remark in years. They worship him, but they don't even know some of the stuff he's done and is still doing. It's just..." 

I looked to the side and saw a building about the size of a house in Ponyville. My heart skipped a beat when I saw a state of TD on top of it, his wings spread and a benevolent smile on his face. Ponies were filing in, most of them wearing those scorpion necklaces. I walked up to the fence and just stared at the congregation. Some of them even looked up to the statue, put their forelegs over their hearts and tilted their head to it in a bow. 

"Maybe he's going to go back to the way he was," I said quietly. "We can be happy."

"Well, if you want to at least talk to him..." 

I grimaced and shook my head. "Someday. I want to make sure that the Storm Kingdom isn't suffering first. If I see that he's not getting revenge on the nation that attacked Equestria..." I took a deep breath and turned from the chapel. "Come on, Skystar. Let's get going.